THE 



Abiding Comforter 



A NECESSITY 



TO 



JOYFUL PIETY AND EMINENT USEFULNESS. 



BY 

Rev. ANTHONY ATWOOD, 

Of the Philadelphia Annual Conference. 



" And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, 
that he may abide with you for ever." ' " ',Z' 

" I will not leave you comfortless." ■ '' f* v^ »7N 

" For the joy of the Lord is your strength." .. ; , . *C>,!^^ 

/I/ f f f 



PHILADELPHIA : 
ADAM WALLA CE, 

No. 14 N. Seventh St. 



For Sale at all Methodist Book Stores, and by the Author, 
No. 809 North Seventeenth Street. 



r-^ 



0%> 



-^^ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the j'ear 1874, by 

Rev. ANTHONY ATWOOD, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



Westcott & Thorison, 
Stereotypers and Electrotypers, Philada, 






TO THE MEMORY 



MY SAINTED FATHER AND MOTHER, 

WHO, WITH OTHERS, 

by their happy lives, joyful worship, sweet songs 
of praise and godly example, 

Led My Youthful JF^eart to J^unger 



A CERTAIN, JOYOUS AND SATISFACTORY PIETY, 

AND TO ALL WHO EITHER ENJOY OR THIRST FOR 
THE INDWELLING, 

ABIDING COMFORTER 

TO MAKE THEM JOYFUL IN THE HOUSE OF THEIR PILGRIMAGE, 

%\t%t ^agcs are §iamblg anb ^espectfuUg gebicateb 

BY 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



TTZITH Lord Bacon experience was the test of 
^ ^ every system — indeed, of all truth. Although 
so much is said of science and philosophy in these 
days, it is surprising how little men really know. 
How do you know that what you teach is true ? is a 
sensible question to propound to any teacher, either 
in science or religion. A scientist finds a single 
fact, and then builds a huge pile of theories, wood, 
hay and. stubble, upon it, and demands the assent 
of all men to his foolish deductions. We yield to 
his facts, but laugh at his theories. 

We cleave to the theory of Lord Bacon : experi- 
ence tests all opinions, and detects their truth or fal- 
lacy. In this work I have purposely dwelt at greater 
length on experience than on doctrinal teaching. 
" He that doeth his will (has experience) shall know 
of the doctrine whether it be of God," and he only 
in a proper sense. For more than a century the 
Methodists have been undivided, or, in other words, 



6 Preface. 

a perfect unit both in doctrinal views and in Chris- 
tian experience. It is only recently, mostly since 
the close of the war, that any difference of opinion 
has appeared, the Church having grown to such 
vast proportions and increasing so rapidly in wealth 
as to turn her away more or less from her old doc- 
trines and simple forms of worship. 

The watchful fathers, trained on huge circuits^ 
have passed away, and men of better education, but 
less practical experience, now rule for the hour. 
Every one seems to believe, preach and write as he 
deems best, without fear of reproof or censure. So 
it was not in former years. Even our standard doc- 
trines have become subjects of doubt and disputa- 
tion. Mr. Wesley and the fathers of our Church 
prohibited this. 

In the early part of 1874, Rev. J. T. Crane, D.D., 
of the Newark, New Jersey, Conference, published a 
book, entitled " Holiness the Birthright of God's 
Children,'' in which he labors to prove that the 
moment a man is converted " from the error of his 
ways " to God, he is perfectly pure. There are no 
remains of impurity left, no anger, lust, hatred, emu- 
lation or strife, but he is at that moment entirely 
sanctified. 

That publication was the occasion of my writing 



Preface. j 

this. But it is not the author's aim to reply to Dr. 
Crane's arguments; he refers to them as a means 
rather than as an end. The grand old Wesleyan 
and Bible doctrine of holiness, the corner-stone, 
foundation, and indeed the superstructure, of our 
great missionary Church, cannot be ehminated from 
her system without compassing her own ruin at the 
same time. 

I have rather intended to build up our people in 
their most holy faith, to show them as briefly as 
possible in the space at disposal the great privilege 
it is theirs to enjoy, to lead them into the higher 
life of perfect love, the experience of a full rest in 
Christ as a perfect Saviour from all sin. 

The reader may discover an occasional repetition 
of thought. This results from the fact that a part 
of the work was written as a serial in the " Home 
Journal," without any thought at first of putting the 
articles in book form. And when they were thus 
put together, the author did not deem it worth while 
to go through the labor necessary for a full correc- 
tion. The reader will therefore please excuse any 
inelegancies of this sort. 

The author feared that some truly changed and 
justified persons, on reading Dr. Crane's book, 

might be filled with doubt of their acceptance^ be- 

1«- 



8 Preface. 

cause their experience did not measure up to his 
ideas. He desired also to defend the fathers, as he 
deemed them misrepresented as to their experience 
of perfect love. Hence his list of a few of them 
whose testimony is most valuable to the Church. 

Above all, he wished to show that Jesus Christ 
had furnished to the world a model of his own 
Church, converted first and sanctified wholly after- 
ward by the gift of the Holy Ghost. The recent 
outpouring of the Spirit, bringing up the experience 
of the Church to the divine standard of the New 
Testament, is shown by its grand results to be of 
God. 

Having done what he could to counteract evil 

tendencies, to lead the Church to hold fast to her 

long-tried doctrine and rich experience, and to avoid 

all novelties, he commits the whole to the blessing 

of God and the judgment of those who hunger for 

the divine fullness. 

THE AUTHOR. 
Philadelphia. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Christ's own Model for his Church ii 

CHAPTER II. 
Holiness the Bible Standard of Piety 26 

CHAPTER III. 
Sophistries Examined 37 

CHAPTER IV. 
Review of Sophistries. — Continued. 49 

CHAPTER V. 
Opinions of Leading Writers 65 

CHAPTER VI. 
Testimony of Experience 78 

CHAPTER VII. 
Testimony of Experience. — Continued 93 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Testimony of Experience. — Continued. 107 

9 



I o Contents. 

CHAPTER IX. 
Testimony of Experience in other Communions ii8 

CHAPTER X. 
Testimony of Experience. — Concluded 133 

CHAPTER XL 
Why many Fail to seek Holiness 143 

CHAPTER XII. 
Why we Preach Holiness 157 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Recent Revival of Holiness 184 

CHAPTER XIV. 
The so-called Unpardonable Sin 199 



The Abiding Comforter. 



CHAPTER I. 

CHRIS l^'S OWN MODEL FOR HIS CHURCH. 

"Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have com- 
manded you." 

OUR Saviour Christ is the model for his fol- 
lowers in all time. What he taught we must 
teach, what he did we must do, as far as the mere 
human can copy the divine. His plan for planting, 
building up and establishing his Church on earth 
is clear and well defined, and should be followed 
with care in every age. He introduced that system 
of ministry which goes out to seek the lost. Prior 
to that time the people were required to come to the 
places designated to worship, bring their offerings 
and seek the divine favor ; he sent the gospel out to 
seek them. 

THE SPIRITUAL STATE OF THE DISCIPLES. 

For this purpose he chose, called, regenerated and 
ordained the twelve apostles. Their sound moral 
and religious character is indicated in the fact that 
He in whom was inherent all wisdom and knowledge 

11 



12 The Abidifig Comforter. 

selected them for a special work : '' I have chosen you 
out of the world ; thine they were, and thou gavest 
them me." Their spiritual condition is clearly indi- 
cated in this single quotation. " Thine they were, 
and thou gavest them me," would of itself seem to 
settle the question. 

They could not have been unregenerate " children 
of wrath even as others," or they would not have 
been chosen by him or given to him by the Father. 
Xor would they have been willing instantly to have 
forsaken their only means of subsistence at the call 
of one of whom they had so little knowledge. They 
were doubtless among that pious class who, like 
Zacharias and Elizabeth, were " waiting for the con- 
solation of Israel." In conversation with Christ 
they allude to the sacrifices they had made : " Lord, 
we have forsaken all and followed thee ; what shall 
we have therefore ?" He answered, " Verily I say 
unto you. That ye which have followed me in the 
rege7ie7'ation, when the Son of man shall sit in the 
throne of his glor}", ye also shall sit upon twelve 
thrones, judging the t^velve tribes of Israel." The 
pious Quesnel on this passage says, "The philoso- 
phers forsake all without following Christ ; most 
Christians follow Christ without forsaking all : to 
do both is apostolic perfection." 

THEIR FIRST COMMISSION. 

The apostles were sent out to preach that the 
" kingdom of heaven is at hand, to heal the sick, 



Chris fs own Model for his Church. 13 

cleanse the lepers, and cast out devils." They were 
wisely restricted to the '* lost sheep of the house of 
Israel, to the Jews alone." They knew the Jewish 
Scriptures and the hope and expectation of that 
people as to a coming Messiah. They could not 
have spoken of what they had no knowledge. And 
those to whom they were sent knew only what 
Moses and the prophets had spoken ; these could 
well understand, therefore, all that the apostles could 
say. To the Greeks their ministry would have been 
foolishness, as was that of St. Paul to Festus, who 
knew nothing of the books read by the Jews, while 
Agrippa was convinced because he was trained in 
the religion of the Jews. 

These were devout, good men. The Saviour 
never sent unregenerate men to preach and work 
miracles. The supposition is monstrous. He who 
thinks he did should never find fault with any Church, 
in subsequent ages, for sending out men of no piety, 
mere men of the world, entirely godless men, to 
preach the gospel, as they would be following the 
very highest example. " An evil tree cannot bring 
forth good fruit." These men did return with joy, 
declaring " that even the devils were subject unto us 
through thy name." He then cautions them against 
rejoicing in their success, and says, " Rather rejoice 
that your names are written in heaven." This cer- 
tainly asserts their spiritual relation to Christ and fit- 
ness for heaven. And this, taken in connection with 
a passage in Hebrews, " To the general assembly 
2 



14 The Abiding Comforter. 

and church of the first-born, which are written in 
heaven," together with one in Revelation, " whose 
names are not written in the book of hfe of the 
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," — this, 
it seems to me, settles the question as to the moral 
and spiritual state of the disciples of our Lord 
while Christ was yet with them. 

A SPIRITUAL CHANGE 

was well understood among the Jews in the time of 
our Lord's earthly ministry. A few Scriptures will 
convince us of this. When the Saviour found that 
Nicodemus was totally in the dark on this spiritual 
change, he expressed surprise that a teacher of his 
years should not understand so plain a matter : " Art 
thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these 
things ?" He said to the sick of the palsy, " Son, be 
of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee." ** Forgive 
and ye shall be forgiven." " Forgive us our debts 
as we forgive our debtors." " Wherefore I say unto 
you, her sins which are many are all forgiven, for 
she loved much." Christ examined Peter after his 
fall : '' Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more 
than these ;" the reply was emphatic : " Lord, thou 
knowest all things ; thou knowest that I love thee." 
This settled the question as to his restoration to 
divine favor and acceptance. 

" And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you 
another Comforter, that he may abide with you for 
ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world can- 



Christ's own Model for his Church. 15 

not receive, because it seeth him not, neither know- 
eth him : but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you, 
and shall be in you." They had the Spirit with them 
continually, as justified believers, prior to the cruci- 
fixion. The Saviour said of Nathanael, " Behold an 
Israelite indeed in whom is no guile." He pro- 
nounced him so perfect as to be without guile — all 
that has ever been required of a converted saved soul. 
We must not suppose that because the Jewish rulers 
were wicked politicians, there was no faith or deep 
spiritual piety and life among the common people. 
It was doubtless from among these pious praying 
ones that Christ selected the twelve apostles. 

If any one still doubts and desires further evidence, 
let him read the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth 
chapters of John : ** Let not your heart be troubled ; 
ye believe in God, believe also in me ;" " In my 
Father's house are many mansions ;" " I go to pre- 
pare a place for you ;" ** I will come again and receive 
you unto myself;" " Peace I leave with you ;" ** Now 
are ye clean through the word which I have spoken 
unto you ;" " I am the vine, ye are the branches ;" 
"Abide in me ;" "If ye were of the world, the world 
would love his own, but because ye are not of the 
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, 
therefore the world hateth you." 

Of course all the good done in us, from the first 
drawings of the Father in childhood to the full 
measure of grace imparted in perfecting Christian 
character in the baptism of the Holy Ghost, is by the 



1 6 The Abiding Comforter. 

Spirit of God. Through and by the same Spirit all 
the pious have been drawn, trained, awakened and 
born again, as \vell as sanctified wholly. It is the 
same Spirit that enlightened and inspired the ancient 
prophets, and that the Saviour said "was with and 
in " his disciples while he was yet with them ; but 
notwithstanding all this, it is said : " The Holy Ghost 
was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet 
glorified." 

I have been thus explicit because it has been said 
that the first spiritual change of the disciples of our 
Lord occurred on the day of Pentecost when the 
Spirit fell upon them. I have heard this preached 
occasionally as the only real conversion of the apos- 
tles. It may do for men of little reflection or thought, 
but will not do for a sound divine or an intelligent 
hearer. 

THOUGH BORN AGAIN, NOT PERFECT, 

They indicate that the remains of carnal nature 
were still with them as in other justified believers: 
" Then there arose a reasoning among them, which 
of them should be greatest. And Jesus perceiving 
the thought of their heart, took a child and set him 
by him, . . . and said, He that is least among you all, 
the same shall be great." They were like good men 
in more modern times — selfish and ambitious of dis- 
tinction. Each desired to be greater than the other.' 
It was because of the feebleness of their faith that 
Jesus answered and said : " O faithless and perverse 



Christ's own Model for his Church. 17 

generation ! how long shall I be with you and suffer 
you ?" 

James and John, two of the most calm and least 
excitable of them all, when provoked at the Samari- 
tans, said : " Lord, wilt thou that we command fire 
to come down from heaven and consume them, even 
as Elias did?" But he turned and rebuked them, 
saying : " Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are 
of, for the Son of man is not come to destroy men's 
lives, but to save them." 

Christ frequently spoke of the immaturity of the 
graces of his disciples : ** I have yet many things to 
say unto you, but ye cannot hear them now. How- 
beit when he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will 
guide you into all truth." Can there be a more clear 
and beautiful expression of what the baptism of the 
Holy Ghost would do for them ? How clear is the 
word of God, when read with a single purpose of 
knowing what is truth, and not to sustain a previ- 
ously-formed opinion ! Their work had been con- 
fined to their brethren, the Jews. But after Christ 
should leave them their field of labor was to be en- 
larged, and they were to go into all the world, among 
all people, which would most fearfully test their faith, 
and battle with their prejudices, requiring more power 
than they then had. 

" And being assembled together with them, com- 
manded them that they should not depart from Jeru- 
salem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, 
saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly bap- 
2* B 



1 8 TJie Abiding Comforter. 

tized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the 
Holy Ghost not many days hence."' " But ye shall 
receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come 
upon you." It was a specific command that they 
should not depart on their mission until they re- 
ceived an endowment not yet received. Regenerate 
as they were, they were not yet fitted for their life- 
work until baptized with the Holy Ghost. To all 
intents, and without any room for cavil, they were 
required to wait for a second blessing, a grace in 
advance of their pardon and regeneration and the 
experience they then had, to fully fit them for the 
ser\-ice he had assigned them. 

THEY WERE ALL FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST. 

What was this ? What did it do for those on 
whom it fell ? !\Ir. Wesley, in his conversation 
with Count Zinzendorf, deemed it the sanctification 
of the one hundred and twenty. Both believed 
they were pardoned and regenerated before. If it 
was their first spiritual change, how can we under- 
stand what is said before as to their relation to 
Christ, fitness for heaven, " names written " there 
and " chosen out of the world" ? They were not 
allowed to commence their life-work until thus bap- 
tized of the Spirit. They were different men ever 
afterward. Xot nt for his witnesses before — able and 
efficient witnesses ever after. Such they and theii 
successors were to be " unto the uttermost parts of 
the earth ;" which shows that the same " eift of 



Christ's ozvn Model for his Church. 19 

power " was to continue in the Church till the end 
of time. They were like soldiers half armed, not fit 
for battle before, ready for any contest afterward. 
Weak and timid up to that time, though good men, 
men of giant power, subsequently. Was that power 
to be confined to that day and these believers only, 
or was it to be continued in the Church ? We deem 
it Christ's model of his Church for all time, and so 
preach the gift of the Spirit as a necessity to the 
Church. 

IT WAS A CLEANSING POWER. 

I. All petulance of spirit was taken away in a 
moment of time. James and John no more felt like 
calling for fire from heaven to consume wicked men. 
On the contrary, they rejoiced that " they were 
counted worthy to suffer for his name sake." There 
were mockers among the multitude who said they 
were filled with new wine. " But love is not easily 
provoked." Hatred, malice and all ill-tempers were 
purged away. Ambition, to which they had been so 
prone, the sin that so constantly had beset them, was 
felt no more, so far as the history informs us. It was 
not repressed, but utterly rooted out. We hear no 
more the inquiry which should be the greatest, but 
all were willingly on an equality. Each preferred 
the other to himself How beautifully is this seen 
in the selection of the seven deacons to care for the 
poor ! The Grecians had complained of their widows 
being neglected in the daily ministrations, and the 



20 The Abiding Comforter. 

whole Church elected a board of seven stewards, 
five of whom were Greeks, and but two Hebrews. 
Their names indicate this. The greatest number 
elected were on the side of the complaining party. 
We hear no more fault found. 

As well did all selfish love of wealth cease and 
pass away for ever. Without compulsion, and for 
the benefit of all, their goods and lands were sold 
and the proceeds thrown into a common fund. This 
state of things, of course, could only last for a short 
time, and ought not to have continued; but it is 
adduced here to show that the love of Christ did 
cure most perfectly the love of wealth. And perfect 
love, the power of the Holy Ghost on the heart, 
always has, and always will, cure inordinate love of 
the world, " For whoso loveth the world, the love 
of the Father is not in him." 

2. They were not only emptied, but filled. Cleans- 
ing is good, but filling with all the fullness of God is 
far better. Their after histor>' shows that they were 
full of divine sympathies to which they had before 
been strangers. St. Paul " longed for the Philippians 
in the bowels (or sympathies) of Jesus Christ." So 
did all upon whom the Spirit fell, for all people with- 
out respect to nation or localit}'. Philip, a layman, 
fled from Jerusalem to Samaria because of persecu- 
tion, and he forgot his former prejudices as a Jew 
and preached Christ as a common Saviour of all 
men, and soon had the people rejoicing in a common 
salvation. 



Christ's own Model for his Church. 21 

3. Fear of men gave place to love. The leading 
apostle had been afraid of a servant-maid, and de- 
serted his Master at a critical moment in the fearful 
tragedy of his sufferings. He is quite another man 
now, after the baptism of " power and love, and of a 
sound mind." Only a short time subsequently he 
faces the Jewish council, and charges them with 
both the betrayal and murder of his Lord and Mas- 
ter. He and all the others had an endowment of 
courage as well as of love to which they had been 
entire strangers. This fullness was the finishing of 
their preparation for the work to which Christ had 
ordained and sent them. Without it they could not 
have succeeded in their ministry, either in Judea or 
elsewhere. 

We claim this to be the type, the Saviour's own 
model, of the Christian Church in all the world and 
for all time. Men are first regenerated by the Spirit, 
adopted into the divine family, their names are writ- 
ten in heaven, and they have victory over sin. But 
they are far from being pure in heart or wholly sancti- 
fied. Were such to be called away from this life, God 
would see to it that their faith should claim Christ 
as a full Saviour a-s this world, with all its claims and 
cares which have hindered the full exercise of faith 
before, recedes from sight and they near the world 
of spirits. Full sanctification even then is not by 
death, but by faith in Christ's sacrifice for sin, 
which they failed to exercise before because of the 
power of things seen. " Without holiness no man 



22 The Abiding Comforter. 

shall see the Lord " must remain for ever true, and 
faith alone, as the means of purification, remains also 
a truth to the last. Precisely the same infirmities 
and remains of carnal nature still exist in imperfect 
Christians which we have seen did exist in the 
twelve apostles while Christ yet remained with them 
— ambition, desire of distinction among their fellows, 
feeble faith and the spirit evinced by James and 
John against the infidel Samaritans, which the 
Saviour so tenderly reproved. 

But the baptism of the Holy Ghost cured all this 
in their case — has in all ages since, and will to the 
end of the world. He was the Sanctifier and Com- 
forter then, is now, and ever will be in all the world. 
There is no longer any necessity of outward signs, 
no tongues of fire or sound of rushing wind, to con- 
vince either the learned or ignorant. The Spirit 
always bears its own testimony, and that is suffi- 
cient to convince. 

" Though on our heads no tongues of fire 
Their wondrous powers impart, 
Grant, Saviour, what we more desire — 
Thy Spirit in our heart." 

Pardon or justification is a great grace, as it 
gives peace with God through our Lord Jesus 
Christ, and a title to the life to come. The experi- 
ence, however, of most laymen, as well as ministers, 
has convinced them that a divine fullness, a higher 
spiritual life, is needed for such as desire to win 



Chris fs own Model for his Church. 23 

others and lead them to the Fountain of hVing 
waters. The grace that saves from sin is one thing, 
but the grace that fulty sanctifies, and empowers for 
service, and fills with ecstatic joy and praise, is a 
much higher grace, as was witnessed on the day of 
Pentecost, and has since been seen in the lives and 
labors of all great reformers as well as all men of 
much influence. I need not recite the facts in proof: 
they are patent to all reading and observing men. 

THAT IS THE MODEL CHRIST HAS GIVEN. 

Why follow the first Church in all things else, and 
neglect to copy its spirit and fullness of power from 
on high ? Is the gift of power less needed now than 
at a former period ? Have education and a higher 
civilization rendered it less necessary to the Church 
or the reformation of the world now than it was just 
after the ascension of our Lord ? Are vice, hardness 
of heart, old habits and iron prejudices easier over- 
come at the present time than they were then, or at 
any former period ? Surely no one will assert this. 
Then why not wait, tarry, pray, for this gift of power, 
as they did, as Christ ordered them to do, until it 
fills our hearts and all our churches and places of 
worship as in the primitive age ? 

For want of this the world is leading the Church, 
instead of the Church leading the world, and leading 
it into many of its follies, gayeties, and into so-called 
innocent amusements. Many professors now are 



24 The Abiding Comforter. 

" lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God." * 
The present formalities of worship with many are 
too mechanical and lifeless to affect the masses of 
men. They do not, cannot, will not, without the 
baptism of the Holy Ghost, as long experience has 
fully demonstrated. This divine baptism makes all 
things new in the pulpit and in the pews. Even 
vital truths, plainly recited and urged upon the peo- 
ple, are often powerless without it. " Without me 
ye can do nothing." How surprised many of us 
will be in the future life when we see what would 
have remedied the evils of society ! yet we did not 
fully apply the remedy, though it was near at hand. 
Read the Saturday journals of any city to learn what 
is to be the Sabbath theme of many. Much of it is 
solemn trifling ; it cannot be called preaching the 
gospel. Thousands of such sermons would not lead 
one sinner to Christ or teach him what he must do 
to be saved. Yet all these ministers complain of the 
venality and corruption of men in high and low po- 
sitions. There is no remedy but the Holy Ghost to 

* " In Mr. Bennet's (Established) church, at Tresmere, in Eng- 
land, in 1742, a strange scene was witnessed. Charles Wesley was 
the preacher ; and on his declaring that by ' harmless diversions ' 
he had been ' kept dead to God, asleep in the devil's arms, secure 
in a state of damnation, for eighteen years,' Mr. Meriton, one of his 
traveling companions, added, aloud, * And I for twenty-five.' 
'And I,' cried Mr. Thompson, 'for thirty-five.' 'And I,' said 
Mr. Bennet, ' for above seventy.' This was quite enough (says the 
historian) to expose Thompson to the ecclesiastical anger of the 
bishop of the diocese." 



Chris fs own Model foi^' his Church. 25 

fire the heart and constrain the ministers to preach 
Jesus Christ and him crucified. Other themes may 
please and make the ministrj^ popular, but this alone 
is saving. You can usually ascertain the piety of a 
people by learning of the piety of their pastor. Does 
he live a life of faith ? is he full of the spirit of self- 
sacrifice? has he been baptized with the Holy 
Ghost ? Does he love his work, and labor, " not of 
constraint, but with a ready mind " ? Does the love 
of Christ constrain him as it did those who were 
filled with love and power on the day of Pentecost ? 
Does he " speak what he knows and testify of what 
he has felt and seen " ? This kind of a man and this 
sort of preaching, and not the mere fact of ortho- 
doxy, is sure to succeed because there is life in it. 
No healthy change in the morals of society has ever 
been effected by any other. It need not be expected 
until the power from on high rests on the laborers. 
This is Christ's plan, and the Church must come up 
to it if we would succeed. He has given the model of 
a successful Church. Why follow his teaching in all 
other matters and neglect to seek what he deemed 
so essential to that Church planted by himself? 
3 



CHAPTER II. 

HOLINESS THE BIBLE STANDARD OF PIETY. 

" Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile." 

A TRUE standard of satisfactory religious ex- 
perience is a necessity to the Church, and 
happily this has been duly furnished by the Lord 
himself Holiness was engraved on a gold plate, 
and worn on the forehead of Aaron the high priest. 
Ex. xxiii. 36. All the people saw this during each 
service. It was designed to keep the idea before all 
worshipers continually. God is called **the Holy 
One of Israel." The mountain whence the law was 
given was called " the holy mount." And Peter so 
terms the mount of transfiguration. " Speak unto 
all the congregation of the children of Israel, and 
say unto them. Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your 
God am holy;" "Sanctify yourselves therefore, and 
be ye holy : for I am the Lord your God ;" *' I am the 
Lord which sanctify you." 

The reply of Christ to the lawyer as to which was 
the most important commandment of the law fixes 
the standard of moral purity (Matt. xxii. 37): "Thou 
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the 

26 



Holiness the Bible Standard of Piety. 27 

first and great commandment. And the second is 
like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy- 
self. On these two commandments hang all the 
law and the prophets." Obedience to all the other 
divine requirements follows as a consequence of 
obeying this. Here perfect love to God is fixed as 
the standard of piety. Love to others flows natu- 
rally from loving God fully, as a stream flows from its 
fountain. *' He that loveth not his brother is not of 
God," no matter what his profession or standing in 
society. " He abideth in death." '' Be ye perfect 
even as your Father in heaven is perfect." " Till we 
all come in the unity of the faith . . . unto the 
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." 

These Scriptures fix holiness or perfect love as the 
standard of Christian piety. In a moral government 
a fixed rule of duty and privilege is a necessity. 
Deficiencies cannot be detected without this. Pro- 
gress or decline might occur, but could not be mea- 
sured, or even detected, without a fixed rule. All 
governments fix a standand of purity for the coins 
they issue for circulation, or correct business could 
not exist. The amount of alloy could not be de- 
tected ; all values would be uncertain, and business 
confused and unsatisfactory. 

The same is true in mechanics. The rule, the 
plummet, the straight-edge, the square and level, are 
indispensable to correctness. Without them all would 
be guess-work, doubt and uncertainty. The mariner 
might by good fortune navigate his vessel across the 



28 The Abiding Comforter. 

ocean, perhaps without the sun or pole-star, those 
unerring guides, but what days and nights of sleep- 
less anxiety and concern would he spend ! In the 
life of piety which all are required to live, how 
terrible would be the distress were believers with- 
out an infallible rule of life and duty to assure 
ihem that they are right ! To live up to the standard 
is to live a life of satisfaction, joyfulness and praise. 
To live below it, as so many thousands do, is to have 
a sense of fear, doubt and discomfort lest all is not 
right and will not be safe in the future. Conscience 
is clamorous and fear displaces love, the true rest 
of the soul. What a religion to preach to the un- 
happy, doubtful and disquieted multitude ! Yet it is 
the best that can be offered if the great Author of 
the system has not fixed and published a satisfactory 
standard possible to the faith of the sincere and de- 
vout worshiper. 

The minister who does not preach holiness or 
moral purity will not have a deeply spiritual people 
unless they receive the necessary light leading to in- 
ward life from some other source. It is quite impossi- 
ble they should. Pardon or regeneration is not the 
divine standard, as we have above shown. It is a 
great grace, and satisfies for a time. It is not com- 
pleteness, however ; it does not come up to or fully 
meet and satisfy the longings of the soul, or the de- 
mands of the divine law which requires us to love 
God with " all the heart, soul, mind and strength." 
Regeneration is the beginning of holiness, but not its 



Holiness the Bible Standard of Piety. 29 

extent and fullness. Believers should be urged to 
rise higher, to seek to be " cleansed from all filthiness 
of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear 
of God." Nothing short of this has God required, 
nothing less fully satisfies and gives true rest to the 
soul. He who does not preach this fails in duty 
both to God and those who hear him, and will not 
be satisfied with his own success as a gospel minister, 
or have a spiritual working people. It is rare indeed 
for hearers to hunger for a higher experience than 
they are taught is their present privilege. 

How responsible, then, is the position of all minis- 
ters ! It is really fearful to contemplate, and should 
cause a shudder to the unfaithful one, be his stand- 
ing prominent or humble. Who that believes the 
verities of divine revelation, and thinks of the multi- 
tudes who may be lost through his failure to teach 
the true standard of piety, would not rather live the 
life of a beggar than that of a faithless, careless 
minister? The passage of only a few short years 
will tell whether we have built with " gold, silver 
and precious stones, or wood, hay and stubble." 
Christ is the foundation, *' but let every man take 
heed how he buildeth thereon." Let each keep the 
standard in view, ''holiness, without which no man 
shall see the Lord." 

INSPIRED TERMS 

should not be exchanged for such as good men have 
often used, to avoid the reproach which .some have 
3* 



30 Tlic Abiding Comforter. 

cast upon those which are used by the Spirit of 
inspiration. Because the gift of the Holy Ghost, 
hoHness, perfection, perfect love and entire sanctifi- 
cation have been objected to, the modern phrase, 
higher life, has come into use quite generally. Those 
who use it are true men, there can be no doubt. We 
all use it more or less. Far be it from me to under- 
value the sincerity, piety and deep sanctity of those 
who prefer it to other terms. They are doubtless 
far better men than the writer, but I nevertheless 
deem them in error in not using the *' words which 
the Holy Ghost teacheth." Cleave to the Scriptures, 
and let there be no toning down the standard 
divinely established to meet the false taste of any. 
The righteous Judge is at the door, and will soon 
try our work, to see " of what sort it is." 

Higher is only a comparative word, and of neces- 
sity carries the idea of a sliding-scale. There are all 
states and degrees of piety, from that of mere pro- 
fession to that of St. John or an archangel. The 
one next above him who merely fears God is in a 
higher state than that of the one below him. Which 
of the states in the catalogue, which of the rounds 
in the spiritual ladder, do you mean when you say 
" the higher Christian life " ? Are not those who 
use the phrase in danger of misleading the sincere 
inquirer after the true Bible standard of perfection? 
He seeks to be right, and you talk to him of "' the 
higher life." It may have a conventional meaning 
that he may not understand, and lead him to think 



Holiness the Bible Standard of Piety. 3 1 

that he enjoys that Hfe when he is merely pardoned 
of his sins, though he well knows that the lusts of 
the flesh, of the eye and the pride of ambition are 
still within him. You may therefore deceive and 
mislead the sincere by the use of a term not sanc- 
tioned by the word of God. Inspired phrases are best, 
and should not be allowed to be substituted by those 
coined by good men. We are always safe in the use 
of Bible language. 

PERFECT LOVE MAKES LIFE AND DUTY A CHARM. 

" Makes the rough paths of peevish nature even, 
And opens in the breast a little heaven." 

To me there is nothing more offensive than the 
manner in which some speak of religion, and their 
own spiritual state in particular. It repels instead 
of attracting the unhappy man. They are always 
bad, feel unpleasant, unhappy, they have always 
been unlucky, full of fear for the future both of this 
life and the next, never clear in religious expe- 
rience, always in doubt of their acceptance and the 
goodness of other people. The present is sad, 
gloomy and sour, the future promises only disaster, 
loss and calamity. They themselves are poor mis- 
erable offenders, and most others are no better, 
but much worse. Nor is this state of feeling occa- 
sional, but constant- Although I am well aware 
that we need the merit of Christ's death continual- 
ly, yet somehow I have always had a repugnance to 
such doleful verbiage and sour piety. Such Chris- 



32 The Abiding Comfoj'ter. 

tians, if they really deserve the name, which I seri- 
ously doubt, are somewhat improved in these latter 
years. Forty or more years ago they used to con- 
fess in the pulpit that " they broke all of God's com- 
mandments in word and deed every day of their 
lives," not thinking of all that this sweeping charge 
involves, 

I confess that I feel a moving of benevolence for 
such gloomy believers, and how can I better show it 
than by commending them to the Psalms of David 
and the history of the Church after the day of Pen- 
tecost ? " They eat their meat with gladness and 
singleness of heart." And David says : " Blessed 
are they that dwell in thy house : they will be still 
praising thee." ** He that offereth praise glorifieth 
me." Joy and praise were constant in the Church 
which Christ plafited as a model for all time. We 
must come back to it, or the ungodly about us will 
never be won to Christ and his Church. Many 
ministers have adopted the driving method ; Christ 
intended his Church should attract with the voice 
of joy, thanksgiving and praise. Which is right? 
Ananias was no doubt a sad specimen of a believer 
even then, and Simon Magus was perhaps the only 
sad and complaining Christian professor then in 
Samaria. " There was great joy in that city." "All 
the upright in heart" are commanded to rejoice, not 
complain of themselves or others. The writer has 
ever been very thankful that the type of piety set 
before him in his youthful days was according to the 



Holiness the Bible Standard of Piety. 33 

standard above given, and therefore full of joyful 
songs of praise. 

But few men have enjoyed life better than the 
writer. Everything has a cause. Will the readei 
pardon a brief personal reminiscence which accounts 
for it ? When a small boy, I remember that a lettej 
came to my father late in the afternoon. My mothei 
sat beside him as he audibly read its sad details, in- 
forming him of the loss of a vessel in which he waj- 
principal owner. Near one-third of all his propert} 
was swept away in one short hour. Both parents 
were silent for a short space of time after reading the 
letter. Father seemed sad and silent for once in his 
life. Quick as a flash of lightning, mother sprang to 
her feet, pushed out the table to the centre of the 
room, saying, as she did so, " Let the old boat go ; 
we have always had enough to eat, drink and wear, 
and shall have to the end of life. Let us have a good 
cup of tea and forget the loss." Father looked about 
the room and at us boys, sitting near, and said, with 
a smile, " How good it is to have a cheerful, trust- 
ing wife !" That is the sort of mother who cared 
for my childhood years ago. I should disgrace 
her memory by being sad and gloomy. 

One more reminiscence. My sainted father was a 
man of deep and joyous piety. It was a common 
occurrence during my early boyhood for two elderly 
neighboring women, Mrs. Shourds and Mrs. Burton — 
let their names be immortalized ! — to spend an even- 
ing occasionally at my father's house in religious 

C 



34 The Abiding Comforter. 

conversation, prayer and praise. The huge fire in 
the old-fashioned fireplace lit up the room most 
brilliantly without the need of any other means of 
light. They would sing the old hymns with such a 
joyous inspiration, the tears flowing over faces lit 
up with a smile that seemed to me almost angelic, 
and pray with such apparent rapturous communion 
with Him who was invisible, that my boyish heart 
was perfectly charmed. There and then were my 
religious tastes^ and character formed. I saw what 
religion did for them, how sweetly joyous they all 
were, and I said to myself, My piety, if I ever am so 
happy as to have any, shall be like theirs. They 
lived up to the standard, and therefore " rejoiced 
evermore, prayed without ceasing, and in every- 
thing gave thanks." Those two women, together 
with the joyous piety of my father, made me, under 
God, what I am. My life has been a joyful one from 
the first, through these examples set before me in 
very early years. How I have pitied the children 
of religious but gloomy parents God only knows. 
Those only who live up to the standard established 
by Christ himself, can maintain steady joy. 

All who live a life of faith on the Son of God live 
joyfully. It cannot be otherwise. Comfort, with 
such, springs not from outward circumstances of 
honor or dishonor, wealth or poverty, health or 
sickness. They may be lauded or despised ; but 
having the divine Comforter within them, " a well 
of water springing up, an unction from the Holy 



Holiness the Bible Standard of Piety. 35 

One^" they cannot well be sad for any length of 
timer 

St. Paul describes them thus : " By honor and dis- 
honor, by evil report and good report ; as deceivers, 
and yet true ; as unknown, and yet well known ; as 
dying, and behold we live ; as chastened, and not 
killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, 
yet making many rich ; as having nothing, yet pos- 
sessing all things." " Rejoice evermore, pray with- 
out ceasing, and in everything give thanks ; for this 
is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." 
And St. Peter speaks in the same way : " Whom 
having not seen ye love ; in whom, though now ye 
see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy un- 
speakable and full of glory, receiving the end of 
your faith, even the salvation of your souls," 

Is this all verbiage, and never meant to be real- 
ized in the life of believers ? Who dare affirm this ? 
The full blessings of the new covenant are realized 
by so few of us that we may have deemed ourselves 
straitened in the scheme of grace itself What 
the world needs now is a Church *' full of the Holy 
Ghost and of faith ;" then the joy of the Lord will 
be the strength of its members, the absence of 
which is now its manifest weakness. *' Rejoice in 
the Lord always, and again I say, Rejoice." No man 
can be strong and persuasive either in preaching, 
prayer or religious testimony who is joyless. Where 
'the Holy Ghost is there is joy, victory, triumph. 
So it was at first, so it nas been ever since, and so it 



36 TJie Abiding Comforter. 

will be to the end of time. Even Thomson in his 
" Seasons " says : 

" Should fate command me to the farthest verge 
Of the green earth, . . . 'tis naught to me, 
Since God is ever present, ever felt, 
In the void waste as in the city full ; 
And where he vital breathes there must be joy." 



CHAPTER III. 

SOPHISTRIES EXAMINED. 

" Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in 
all things." 

** T F any man do his will he shall know of the 
J- doctrine whether it be of God, or whether I 
speak of myself," was the language of Christ to the 
Jews. The history of the Church is uniform in this 
one point at least — that when piety and experience in 
divine things have been deep and joyful her doc- 
trines have always been sound and scriptural. But 
as deep experience has more or less ceased by reason 
of wealth and worldly influence, errors fatal to her 
orthodoxy and life have always arisen, thus estab- 
lishing the truth of our Lord's words, " He who does 
the will of God," and he alone, has a certain and 
satisfactory faith. Let any one search the history 
of the Church, and he will learn that those who 
''speak of what they know" experimentally are 
usually sure to be right ; but when theory takes its 
place, sound doctrine more or less ceases, both in 
communities and individuals. 

Theorists in every age are as apt to be sure and 
confident as were the mistaken friends of that suf- 

4 37 



38 The Abiding Comforter. 

ferer who said, " Oh that mine adversary had written 
a book !" thinking, perhaps, that was the surest and 
shortest way to an errorist's ruin, as well as to 
bring out the truth. Truth rarely loses by searching 
investigation. It may be well that secret doubts and 
misgivings concerning experience in the deep things 
of God should be fully brought out. They never fail 
to exist in the Church when piety and experience 
are low, and like poisonous humors in the blood 
will continue to irritate until brought to the surface 
and driven from the system. What we regret as an 
evil is often the means of lasting good. St. Paul re- 
joiced that the gospel was preached, " whether of 
contention or good-will." 

Rev. J. T. Crane, D. D., presiding elder of Eliza- 
beth district in the New^ark Conference in New 
Jersey, has published a book of one hundred and 
forty-four pages in opposition to Mr. Wesley's views 
of entire sanctification, as well as the long-settled 
doctrine of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in 
which he is both a minister and an officer. I hear 
that he had prepared and read most of his volume 
as an essay before the preachers' meeting in the city 
of Newark. Whether his views have materially 
changed since his ordination, or since he was an 
open seeker of perfect love at the camp-meeting 
held near Morristown, New Jersey, in 1868, I do not 
know. However that may be, he now squarely an- 
tagonizes his own Church, deems Mr. Wesley in 
serious error, and labors to refute most of his argu- 



Sophistries Examined. 39 

ments proving a distinct work of holiness subsequent 
to conversion or justification. 

Of course we who have known the brother in all 
his manhood's history were greatly surprised on 
reading his recent opinions. One would think it re- 
quired more courage than he ever possessed to move 
him to attempt a task not only Herculean, but so 
hopeless of success. The explanation in part, per- 
haps, may be found in the fact of his having received 
his education at Princeton College, and not under 
Methodist influences. Our Church has stood very 
much alone in the advocacy and defence of this great 
gospel privilege of believers from the days of the 
Wesleys until within the past few years. The doc- 
tor's educators are sound, and lay much stress, as 
they should, on justification by faith. But they 
have always been more or less opposed to the Wes- 
leyan view of holiness as a grace received subse- 
quently, the doctor being of one mind with his in- 
structors in teaching that all improvement in moral 
and spiritual character after justification is by culture 
and development only. This would naturally lead to 
the inference that educational prejudices have had 
much to do with forming his opinions, though the 
views of his instructors differ vastly from his as to 
the extent of spiritual grace conferred by justification 
itself 

To the reader at a distance it is proper that I 
should introduce my brother Crane. As he is a 
graduate of Princeton College, I suppose him, there- 



40 TJic Abiding Comfoiier. 

fore, to be fairly educated. His talents are fair, but 
by no means brilliant or attractive, and therefore he 
is not likely to be accepted as a strong leader in any 
party. His natural manner is dry and devoid of 
sympathy or feeling, so necessar}^ in impressing the 
hearers. That is a lack, however, much more common 
among ministers of average piety now than in former 
years, when piety was more warm and gushing. 
Brother Crane spent many years of his early man- 
hood as principal of a seminary, preaching only oc- 
casionally, which, by fixing his habits, as is common 
in such cases, has prevented him more or less from 
ever being a popular and attractive pastor. The 
Church does not seem to think of the injury she is 
doing her young ministers by setting them to teach- 
ing instead of preaching after the finish of their edu- 
cation. The writings of the fathers and standard 
authors of the Church are by a sort of necessity more 
studied by a pastor, by which his mind and heart are 
much more improved than they can be by reading 
any of the text-books of the school curriculum. Here 
is much of the future danger to our Church, but I 
suppose there is no earthly power that can work a 
change. The character, earnest preaching and de- 
cided piety of many ministers greatly vary from 
what they were a few years since by reason of their 
course of reading. 

Dr. Crane has published the first book I have ever 
seen written by a Methodist rninister against a car- 
dinal doctrine of our Church. Mr. Wesley says : 



Sophistries Examined. > 41 

" God raised us up as a people to spread scriptural 
holiness over these lands;" and Brother Crane writes 
to prove that there is no higher holiness possible 
than that wrought in the penitent sinner when he 
receives the free pardon of all his sins. 

The doctor calls his book "Holiness the Birthright 
of all God's Children." I intend neither a review nor 
reply to all the brother's crude statements — for so I 
must view them — not intending any offence, how- 
ever. I really deem his positions simply absurdi- 
ties, hardly worth a serious reply. My purpose is to 
exhibit the real state of the case, and to support the 
doctrines held and experienced by our people on the 
subject of holiness for more than a century, and to 
encourage all those whose " heart and flesh crieth 
out for the living God." I feel called on to do this 
because there are such vast numbers at the present 
time thus hungering who may be hindered in their 
aspirations by Brother Crane's very indiscreet utter- 
ances. 

He says : " Hardly one in twenty of our ministers 
professes it, either publicly or privately, so far as I 
can learn. We preach it occasionally, but among our 
people its confessors are still fewer in proportion to 
numbers. Even among our bishops, from 1784 to 
the present day, confessors are as hard to find as in 
any other class of our people. The very princes of 
our Israel have been silent in regard to their own 
experience of it." 

He then gives one or two personal references : 

4* 



42 TJic Abiding Comforter. 

" The apostolic Wesley never professed it. Bishop 
Asbury did not profess it, and Hedding, though 
urged to do so in his last sickness, declined. A 
{^ysr have done it in the past, a few do it at the 
present time, but we cannot hide the fact that they 
are very few, compared with the multitude who do 
not. And why are they so few ?" 

He admits a low state of piety in the Church, and 
excuses it by asking, '* When has it been otherwise ? 
The twelve had a Judas among them, the Church 
was no purer in apostolic times than to-day, and 
our own Church is as moral and doing more than 
ever before." It is rare indeed to find a minister 
reasoning against the outcry of the soul hungering 
for God. But here we have a Methodist preacher 
taking pains to convince our people that they are 
good enough — good as the fathers, the apostles and 
the New Testament Church. The conclusion that 
he intended to dissuade our people from seeking a 
higher piety is fair and legitimate, yet the author is a 
doctor of divinity, so called, and a presiding elder in 
our Church, holding the oversight of over five thou- 
sand full members, with many probationers. There 
are under his special supervision thirty-six traveling 
preachers, many of them young men of little reading 
in the history of the Church, and not fully masters 
of the grand doctrines or experiences on v/hich it is 
founded. Will such teaching from the elder make 
any one on his district more zealous to do good, either 
in inducing a deeper piety among believers or in 



Sophistries Examined. 43 

leading sinners to Christ ? The author's experience 
and teaching clearly answer his own question above, 
at least as far as his influence extends : '' Why are 
there so few professing the higher life of holi- 
ness ?" 

But hear him further. After what he esteems Mr. 
Wesley's inconsistencies in stating the distinction 
between justification and sanctification, he reaches 
this conclusion: "The only real distinction affecting 
the question of practical obedience to God is there- 
fore a theoretical one — that is, Mr. Wesley does 
not show in fact or experience that the most devout 
and holy are any better than the new convert or 
babe in Christ." And, worse yet, " Wesley himself 
manifestly fails to maintain his theoretical distinctions 
in regard to the two classes of Christians." So he deems 
that good man, great reasoner and voluminous writer 
defeated by a graduate of Princeton in only a few 
pages of his book. His proofs from theory and ex- 
perience are failures. " Mr. Wesley's opinions on 
the subject up, to 1747 were exceedingly indefinite, 
if not perplexed. . . . His views of Christian perfec- 
tion were not well defined at the beginning, nor even 
at the end ; and his various utterances, scattered 
as they are over a space of fifty years, furnish no 
complete and consistent theory on the subject. . . . 
Thus little by little the theory of a second distinct 
work grew up, and assumed what I cannot but re- 
gard as an unscriptural form. . . . But we must con- 
fess that to the last Mr. Wesley's methods of stating 



44 TJie Abiding Comforter, 

and enforcing the doctrine (of holiness) were indefi- 
nite." 

He then gives his opinion as to the reasons of 
this : " / cannot resist the conviction that it was be- 
catise it zuas based upon unsound principle sT 

But, to excuse Mr. Wesley in his sad mistakes, the 
doctor says that he was misled by the ninth article 
of the Church of England : " Original sin is the fault 
or corruption of the nature of every man that is 
naturally engendered of the offspring of Adam, 
whereby man is very far gone from original right- 
eousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, 
. . . and this infection of nature doth remain — yea, in 
them that are regenerate." The doctor thinks that 
Mr. Wesley so loved the Established Church as to 
be led into the error of believing that some remains 
of the old nature, such as pride, envy, lust, anger and 
love of the world, remained in believers after conver- 
sion. This, Brother Crane deems a great mistake, 
unsound divinity, as the new birth perfectly cleanses 
the man, and he needs no further work to make him 
pure. " Holiness is his birthright," and it comes to 
him in his spiritual birth. 

He also condemns Mr. Wesley's sermon on '' Sin 
in Believers" as unscriptural, and says he was led to 
preach it by the bad conduct of Maxfield and Bell, 
two of his helpers. Inexperienced men — men of no 
purpose, who have no grand end in view to the 
accomplishment of which their lives are devoted — 
judge of great reformers by themselves. So it is in 



Sophistries Exami^ted. ^,5 

this instance. Brother Crane thinks Mr. Wesley 
preached his sermon on *' Sin in Behevers " as an 
expedient to meet that case and merely to check the 
progress of these misguided men. In his view it had 
no other purpose. 

The facts are these : An EngHsh prelate had or- 
dained Count Zinzendorf to the episcopal office 
among the Moravians, and doubtless deemed it a 
capital stroke against Mr. Wesley. Thomas Max- 
field, by the recommendation of Mr. Wesley, had 
been ordained by Dr. Barnard, bishop of London- 
derry, the good bishop saying at the time, " Sir, I 
ordain you to assist that good man, Mr, Wesley, that 
he may not work himself to death." Mr. Maxfield 
was a ready, fluent speaker, and highly promoted by 
Mr. Wesley, and having married a lady of some 
wealth was lifted thereby above some of his breth- 
ren, and withal mixing more or less with Moravians 
who admired Bishop Zinzendorf, fell into the snare 
of the devil. 

Bishop Zinzendorf believed that men were wholly 
sanctified at the time of conversion, just as Dr. Crane 
declares he believes. He said to Mr. Wesley, " En- 
tire sanctification and justification are in the same 
instant. He never increases in the love of God ; he 
loves entirely in the same moment, as he is entirely 
sanctified. He may grow in grace, but not in holi- 
ness. As soon as a man is justified the Father, Son 
and Holy Spirit dwell in his heart, and in that mo- 
ment his heart is as pure as it ever will be." 



46 The Abiding Comforter. 

Mr. Wesley asked, " Were not the apostles justi- 
fied before the death of Christ ?" 

The count answered, " They were." 

W. " But were they not more holy after the day 
of Pentecost than before the death of Christ ?" 

Z. " No— not in the least." 

W. " Were they not on that day filled with the 
Holy Ghost ?" 

Z. " They were ; but the gift of the Spirit had no 
reference to their holiness. It was the gift of mir- 
acles only." 

That was the sort of teaching that so disturbed 
the work of Mr. Wesley for a short time, and led to 
the follies of Maxfield and Bell, and of which Dr. 
Crane makes so much account in his sad history 
No marvel, either, for Zinzendorf, Maxfield and Bell 
held the same views now advocated by Brother 
Crane. He cleaves to the count and squarely op- 
poses Mr. Wesley in this year of grace — the first 
Methodist preacher who has dared to do it since 
1763. But the times having changed, he will hardly 
command as much space in history as did the two 
original seceders from Mr. Wesley's scriptural views. 

On March 28, 1763, Mr. Wesley says, "I retired 
to Lewisham and wrote the sermon on ' Sin in Be- 
lievers ' in order to remove a mistake which some 
were laboring to propagate — that there is no sin in 
any that are justified." 

I will quote a few sentences from this sermon : 
** Does sin remain in one that believes in Christ ? Is 



Sophistries Examined. 47 

there any sin in them that are born of God, or are 
they wholly delivered from it ? Let no one imagine 
this to be a question of mere curiosity, or that it is 
of little importance whether it be determined one 
way or the other. Rather it is a point of utmost 
moment to every serious Christian, the resolving of 
which very nearly concerns both his present and 
eternal happiness. I do not know that it was ever 
controverted in the primitive Church. All Christians 
were agreed, and, so far as I have observed, the whole 
body of ancient Christians who have left us anything 
in writing declare with one voice that even believers 
in Christ, till they are ' strong in the Lord and in the 
power of his might' (that is, sanctified), have need to 
' wrestle with flesh and blood,' with an evil nature, as 
well as with principalities and powers" (temptations). 

** The same testimony," he continues, " is given by 
all other churches besides the English — not only by 
the Greek and Romish Church, but by every Reformed 
Church in Europe, of whatever denomination." 

Some carried this too far, and taught that sin was 
so strong, even in those that were born of God, that 
it brought them into bondage and had dominion over 
them. To avoid this error, those under the care of 
Count Zinzendorf fled to the other extreme, and 
taught, like Dr. Crane, that regeneration and entire 
holiness are the same thing and occur in the heart at 
the same moment ; that those who were regenerated 
could never be more holy on this side of heaven. 

But desiring to show the soundness of the Wes- 



48 The Abiding Comforter. 

leyan and Methodist doctrine and the mischievous 
folhes of Dr. Crane's views, I shall continue this dis- 
cussion a little further in one more chapter. Brother 
Crane is a diocesan bishop for the time, like his 
predecessor, Count Zinzendorf, and therefore his fal- 
lacies should be exposed, or the views of young 
ministers under his care, as well as those in other 
places, may become alien to both Scripture and 
Methodism. 



CHAPTER IV. 

REVIEW OF SOPHISTRIES.— Continued. 
" Rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith." 

IT will be noticed that Dr. Crane's controversy is 
not with any modern writer, but with Mr. Wes- 
ley himself, the founder under God of the Church in 
which he is a minister and officer. As I seek truth 
and usefulness rather than controversy, I will give 
Mr. Wesley's description, first of the justified, and 
secondly of one made perfect in love. 

THE JUSTIFIED. 

** How God may work we cannot tell, but the gen- 
eral manner wherein he does work is this : Those 
w^ho trusted in themselves, that they were righteous 
and had need of nothing, are, by the Spirit of God, 
applying his word, convinced that they are poor and 
naked. They see the wrath of God hanging over 
their heads, and feel that they deserve the damnation 
of hell. They cry unto the Lord, and he shows 
them that he hath taken away all their sins and opens 
the kingdom of heaven in their hearts — righteous- 
ness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Knowing 
'they are justified freely by his blood,' they 'have 

5 D 49 



50 The Abiding Comforter. 

peace with God through Jesus Christ,* and the love 
of God is shed abroad in their hearts. 

" In this peace they remain for days or weeks or 
months, and commonly suppose they shall not know 
war any more, till some of their old enemies, their 
bosom sins, or ' the sin that doth most easily beset 
them ' (perhaps anger or desire), assault them again 
and thrust sore at them, that they may fall. Then 
arises fear that they shall not endure to the end, and 
often doubt whether God has not forgotten them, or 
whether they did not deceive themselves in thinking 
their sins were forgiven. Under these clouds, es- 
pecially if they reason with the devil, they go mourn- 
ing all the day long. But it is seldom long before 
their Lord answers for himself, sending them the 
Holy Ghost to comfort them, to bear witness con- 
tinually with their spirits that they are the children 
of God. Then they are indeed meek and gentle and 
teachable even as a little child. A7td now first do 
they see the ground of their hearts^ which God before 
woidd not disclose to them, ' lest the soul should fail 
before him, and the spirit which he had made! Noiv 
they see all the hidden abominations there, the depths 
of pride, self-will and hell. Yet having the witness 
in themselves, ' Thou art an heir of God, a joint heir 
with Christ,' even in the midst of their fiery trial, 
then they feel an inexpressible hunger after a full 
renewal in his image, in righteousness and true holi- 
ness. Then God is mindful of the desire of them 
that fear him, and gives them a single eye and a pure 



Review of Sophistries. 5 1 

heart. He stamps on them his own image ; he fixes 
his abode in their soul, bringing them into the rest 
which remaineth for the people of God." 

There is the process, the way in which God leads 
the soul to himself, making him an heir first in 
pardon and justification, and then, in process of time, 
as he is able to bear the light " by reason of age," 
leads him into the full "rest that remaineth for the 
people of God." 

Which description of the state of the justified, 
that of Dr. Crane or of Mr. Wesley, suits best the 
experience of the justified reader? — the former, de- 
claring that justification and entire sanctification, or 
perfect cleansing from all pride, anger and worldly 
desire, are the same work and occur at the same 
time ; or the latter, that sanctification, or entire 
cleansing, is a subsequent work, and occurs at a 
later period ? I would be willing to rest the question 
just here, to be decided by experience alone. 

My own recollection of the hour 

" When from above 

I first received the pledge of love" 

places me precisely where Mr. Wesley places the 
new convert. Were Brother Crane's views correct, 
I should be compelled to admit that I was deceived, 
had been misled by the teachings of the fathers and 
was really in the gall of bitterness at the time I was 
singing lustily 

" Oh how happy are they 
Who their Saviour obey !" 



52 The Abiding Comfoi'ter. 

for in a few days after that happy hour I felt the 
risings of anger and petulance, teaching me that the 
remains of sin yet lingered within, causing me great 
searching of heart and a deep hungering for more 
of the mind of Christ. 

From personal experience, therefore, and a long 
life of pastoral service, in which I have had to 
encourage thousands of new converts, both illiterate 
and educated, wise and unwise, rich and poor, I am 
compelled to say that Brother Crane's doctrines have 
never been sustained in a single case. 

Nay, more, from what I know of Brother Crane, 
together with myself and many other ministers in 
my own Church, if his teaching be true, I am com- 
pelled to conclude that we were never truly born of 
God, for we were not, when converted, fully cleansed 
from undue love of the world, pride and selfishness. 
Why does he, and why do others of us, so desire 
the praise of men as to thirst for distinctions and 
ministerial titles ? Why join so many secret societies 
to gain a popular standing among irreligious men? 
All may be innocent of positive sin; and so believing, 
the keen eye of the world sees and excuses it as 
perfectly human. So, too, the Church looks at it 
with an eye of charity. But they nevertheless know 
that in both cases the purpose is rather the honor 
that Cometh from men than the o-lorv of God. 

It proves one thing at least, and that is that most 
of us are not made perfect in love. But whether it 
equally proves that we are not born of God and in a 



Review of Sophistries. 53 

state of grace demands a doubt. If, however, Dr. 
Crane's position be true that the new birth ensures an 
entire freedom from all the remains of sin and *' the 
carnal desires of the flesh," then the consequence is 
irresistible : all who desire and seek honor from 
men, or for more of the world's goods than supplies 
their necessities, have not the love of God in them. 
They have not "passed from death unto life." I 
am sure that neither my brother, nor any who 
believe with him, will admit the sequence, and I am 
equally sure they cannot evade or destroy the logical 
conclusion from their own premises. We shall 
therefore have to cleave to Mr. Wesley's views of 
justification on strictly logical principles. If I were 
permitted to utter an opinion, it would be this : Men 
in the doctor's position who hold and publish such 
views will yet renounce them as untenable, or will 
change their Church relations before many years, as 
did Maxfield and Bell in the days of the Wesleys. 
Other historical facts which I will not name also lead 
to this inference. 

We have seen Mr. Wesley's description of the 
justified ; now let us hear him on 

THE SANCTIFIED. 

" For he is pure in heart. Love has purified his 
heart from envy, malice, wrath and every unkind 
temper. It has cleansed him from pride, whereof 
* only Cometh contention,' and he hath now put on 
bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, 



54 TJic Abiding Comforter. 

meekness, long-suffering. And, indeed, all possible 
ground for contention on his part is cut off. For 
none can take from him what he desires, seeing he 
* loves not the Vv'orld, nor any of the things of the 
world,' but all his desire is unto God and to the re- 
membrance of his name." — "Works," vol. vi., pp.487, 

493- 

These extracts show the practical mind of Mr. 

Wesley. He is not apt to deal in dry definitions 
only, but to show the processes by which men 
become both justified and sanctified, with their effects 
on them personally. Interrogate any truly expe- 
rienced believer, even though he has never read Mr. 
Wesley's description of the process of the work of 
grace in the soul. Ask him if this is not in accord- 
ance with his own experience ? Ask him if his 
struggles and victory over pride and the risings of 
evil within him \\'ere not as Mr. Wesley describes 
them ? It accords so precisely with my own expe- 
rience, and with that of all whom I have heard 
testify, that I am compelled to believe it true in the 
history of every believer's life. 

History repeats itself in each successive genera- 
tion. Dr. Scott the commentator, and Dr. Chalmers 
the great Scotch preacher, whose names will be hon- 
ored while the world endures, as well as both the 
Wesleys, preached for many years without suspect- 
ing that they were not all the time regenerate men. 
The two latter, with others, had lived so strictly, 
visited the sick and poor, given all their surplus in- 



Review of Sophistries. 55 

come to feed and clothe the hungry and naked, that 
they, with others of hke spirit, received the name of 
^^ the holy clubJ' They sacrificed home and ease by 
becoming missionaries among the heathen Indians. 
Never were there more sincere, laborious or self- 
sacrificing men than the two Wesleys before they 
had " learned the way of God more perfectly." 
Yet they were all this time in an unregenerate 
state, or at least had not learned the way of faith. 
Faith had not yet come — the faith that saves and 
the grace that renews and adopts into the family of 
God, filling with joyfulness. 

As an inference from all this, in looking at the 
churches, the worldliness, love of pleasure and 
amusements, and the little care for the perishing 
about them, and no seasons of joy and praise, I am 
compelled to think that many who now fill the pul- 
pits as well as the pews of the churches in this land 
are in a condition similar to that in which the distin- 
guished men above named said they unexpectedly 
found themselves. 

I know that my heart is full of charity to all men, 
though I thus speak. There is a standard of both 
the grace of pardon and purity. If there were not, 
the world would be in a sad condition. Love all 
men as we may — and *' love does hide a multitude of 
sins " — we dare not deceive any man, though he were 
a father or brother. A man's tongue, like that of 
Peter, will usually betray his nationality in spite of 
himself If a man " be risen with Christ, he will 



56 The Abiding Comforter. 

seek the things that are above, where Christ sit- 
teth ;" there will be his tastes and desires. If it be 
possible to be otherwise, and yet be a Christian, none 
would like to know it better than the writer. Like 
Luther, he must say, " I can do no other, God help me." 
It was not my intention, but I will, notwithstand- 
ing, let my readers hear Brother Crane a little far- 
ther in proof of what I have said : " That one born 
of God and made a new creature is still depraved, 
earthly, sensual and devilish is a startling proposi- 
tion. It requires positive proof before it can be 
accepted." No one ever asserted such a thing. He 
has set up a man of straw. He admits elsewhere 
that Mr. Wesley is clear on justification, exalting it 
very high. Again : " When the blind man came, 
saying. Lord, that I might receive my sight, Christ 
did not cure one eye, and then require a new repent- 
ance and a new act of faith before he touched the 
other. When he healed the lame, it was not by a 
partial cure which sent him away limping. (Yes, 
my dear doctor, but Jacob did go away limping.) 
Why should the inner salvation be less thorough 
than the outward ? He said to the bystanders at the 
tomb of Lazarus, ' Loose him, and let him go.' Can 
we suppose that Christ's power over spiritual death 
is less complete ? For what purpose is depravity 
left ? In all that God has revealed of himself or of his 
plans, I see nothing that explains why the seeds of 
sin should be left in the regenerate. . . . Surely He 
who half cleanseth the heart can make it wholly clean. 



Review of Sophistries. 57 

Wherefore must [the new convert] begin his heaven- 
ward flight with a broken wing?" 

I blush at reading this, and am silent. 

He then calls for the Scriptures which sustain this 
residue theory. But what use is there of our doing 
this ? The clear proofs presented by Mr. Wesley he 
attempts to sweep away, and seems to think he has 
done it with a few strokes of his pen. Gal. v. 17: 
" For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the 
Spirit against the flesh : and these are contrary the one 
to the other ; so that ye cannot do the things that ye 
would." No clearer text can be adduced ; and yet 
he goes into an argument to prove that these were 
not believers at all, they had " fallen from grace," 
had lost all they ever had, because the apostle re- 
proves their folly for adopting a few precepts of the 
Mosaic law, and were trying to practice them in 
connection with Christian duty. St. Paul tells them 
so far as they lean on the law they fall away from the 
gracious system of Christ and the one sacrifice for sin. 
As if a true convert, brought up in the Romish 
Church, should by force of education pray to the 
Virgin or the saints ! His pastor or brethren would 
say, " How foolish you are ! If you look to others 
for help, you forsake Christ, who alone can aid you." 
Would they deem such a one wholly backslidden? 
No ; they would do as Paul did — pity the error spring- 
ing from a tender conscience — and say to the others. 
Help him, you who are otherwise trained, and " re- 
store him in the s-pirit of meekness." Don't be 



58 The Abiding Comforter. 

offended at him because of his weakness. How 
easy is the exegesis to a non-partisan ! 

Thus the doctor treats all the Scriptures quoted by 
Mr. Wesley. Yet (i Cor. iii. i, 3, 4, and 2 Cor. vii. 
i), " Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of 
flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness," etc., on which 
he boldly says St. Paul "certainly includes himself" 
because he uses the pronoun its and ourselves — a form 
of speech used universally now as then by all wise 
speakers and writers, as it is less offensive and more 
soft than you and yourselves. So did St. James when 
reproving an evil : '' Therewith bless we God, even 
the Father, and therewith curse we men." The same 
mode of reasoning would make St. James a profane 
man. 

With all deference to the opinion of Dr. Crane to 
the contrary, I claim that these plain Scriptures do 
sustain the Wesleyan theory, and leave the world to 
judge between us, or rather between his novel exegesis 
and the plain common sense of Mr. Wesley and all 
the fathers of the Church. He calls for Scripture 
proofs. In the sixth chapter of Isaiah we read how 
God required the prophet to perform a difficult duty. 
He had not the necessary courage in view of the 
consequences to himself In this extremity he was 
shown a vision which made him cry out : "I am a man 
of unclean lips." But when the live coal had puri- 
fied his lips, God saying at the time " thine iniquity is 
taken away, and thy sin is purged," then he was ready 
to go without further reluctance. He was evidently 



Review of Sophistries. 59 

a good man and a true prophet, in favor with God 
before, but a very different man afterward — bold and 
fearless, as was the church in Jerusalem after the 
Holy Ghost had come upon them. 

How full of timidity and worldly ambition were 
the apostles of our Lord while he was yet with them ! 
All this is clear enough to the sincere reader, it seems 
to me. But were I to cite a score of Scriptures, it 
would do no good. He asks for one Scripture proof, 
and says " it will be sufficient." Of course he will 
find some way of showing that the case of the 
prophet and his confession, as well as the imperfect 
spiritual condition of the disciples, are not to the 
point, or that neither myself nor Mr. Wesley 
understood the Scriptures we adduce, so that there 
is really no use of my quoting other passages. 

But time and space would fail me to follow this 
ministerial brother, yet unsafe commentator, through 
his unfortunate book. If he does not find it un- 
fortunate for himself, why then my observation in 
the past years of my life has done very little good 
in maturing my judgment. 

Suppose our Church were to adopt his theories ? 
What consequences would then be inevitable ? 

I. We, as a Church, would be compelled to drop 
Mr. Wesley's name out of all our books, expur- 
gating every volume containing his name and teach- 
ing, for his writings everywhere are full of holi- 
ness as received after pardon and justification — his 
sermons, letters, poetry, so greatly admired, read 






60 The Abiding Comforter. 

by so many millions, and which have helped so 
many more millions to reach the land of the blessed 
and holy. His preaching and writings have made 
us a people who were before no people, as well as 
started into new spiritual life all other denominations 
in this and all lands. For this second blessing of 
holiness was his main doctrine, for the spreading of 
which over all the world he says " God raised him 
and the Methodists up." Are we ready for this ? 
No ! will be uttered in thunder tones from myriads 
of voices in all the earth. A small animal may 
bark at the moon, but that beautiful orb will still 
go on just the same. Therefore there is no fear 
but that a doctrine so scriptural, and realized experi- 
mentally by so many, will stand all tests, crucial or 
puerile. 

2. Our discipline must be abandoned or greatly 
altered. It is based upon the teachings of the Bible 
as preached by Mr. Wesley. And Dr. Crane has 
tried to show that he is not a safe guide in the most 
vital doctrinal matters. It requires the bishops to 
ask each candidate for ordination, all of whom are 
supposed to be converted, regenerated men, '' Do you 
expect to be made perfect in love in this life ? Are yon 
gi'oaning after it V This must be eliminated as un 
scriptural and impertinent. The reader can see a 
score of other matters in that little book which must 
be expunged if Dr. Crane's views ever prevail in our 
Church. 

3. The most beautiful hymns of the two Wesleys 



Review of Sophistries. 6 1 

must be blotted out from our collection — that soul- 
stirring chain of biblical poetry, 

" He breaks the power of canceled (or pardoned) sin^ 
He sets the prisoner free." 

" Oh, glorious hope oi. perfect love^ 

" Break off the yoke of inbred sin, 
Kxid. fully set my spirit free." 

*' The seed of sill's disease, 
Spirit of health, remove." 

" Scatter the last remains of sin, 
And seal me thine, above." 

" Let anger, sloth, desire and pride 
This moment be subdued." 

Our whole book is full of the theme of holiness ; 
there are sixty-eight hymns under the head of 
sanctification alone, and all in the Wesleyan view of 
that grace as subsequent to the work of regener- 
ation. 

4. It would certainly close all our class-meetings 
and love-feasts. Few of our people have enjoyed 
these means of grace at any time unless their hearts 
were full of love. And now those professing to 
enjoy Christian purity are almost the only ones who 
give them life and spirit. Our people will not there- 
fore yield to the follies of such as oppose this funda- 
mental doctrine of the system of belief and worship 
which they have so long loved. 

Had I the ear of all our bishops, I would venture 

6 



62 Tlic Abiding Comforter. 

a word of counsel. It would be this : While we 
yield to every man the right to his own private 
opinions, we should be careful whom we appoint to 
the office of presiding elder of a district. They 
should be sound in Methodist views, or they neces- 
sarily injure the work of the pastors. If the bishop 
is doubtful, he should require an interview and a 
close examination. The Church will be greatly 
injured if care is not used just here. It is a point 
of vast moment in preserving Church unity. I saw 
a letter a few months since from a young minister 
craving counsel of a senior. He had experienced 
the grace of perfect love, and his presiding elder had 
peremptorily forbidden him to preach it or say any- 
thing about it among the people. What should he 
do? The elder could injure him greatly in the con- 
ference if he disobeyed him, and he feared spiritual 
loss if he failed to do his duty to God and his own 
convictions. 

Some of the ministers under Dr. Crane's care and 
supervision may be young and inexperienced, not 
yet admitted into conference. Their admission must 
more or less depend upon his favor. How much 
injury he and his book will do among these, not to 
speak of the members who are hungering for God, 
of course cannot be known except to the great Head 
of the Church. He will of course preach according 
to his views, and circulate the books by announcing 
them for sale or by employing others to sell them 
for him. 



Revieiv of Sophistries. 63 

What are our people to do ? Many of them have 
never read Mr. Wesley's sermon on " sin in be- 
lievers," or if they have, may be persuaded that the 
modern Church requires a change of standard views, 
as some vainly say. If no other ministers as eligible 
for the elder's office can be found, or there are those 
for whom no other place is open because not desired 
by the people, better by far for the Church that such 
be left without appointments and supported by their 
more gifted brethren than to allow the seeds of di- 
vision to be sown on a wide ground by giving such 
a place of oversight and influence over those who 
fully endorse the views of our Church on one and 
all of her vital doctrines. The superintendents 
must take this responsibility ; the Church expects it 
at their hands, and they will not fear it if they are 
the right men for their honored position. 

The same caution ought to be exercised by the 
General Conference in appointing editors of all our 
official periodicals. Better stop all official presses 
than to allow them to be engines of discord and di- 
vision, turning away the ear and heart of both min- 
isters and people from the great doctrines of the 
Bible and undeniable Christian experience. Gospel 
doctrines touching religious experience are too vital 
to our whole work to be tampered with by agents 
employed by the Church to spread and uphold her 
influence. Nor should such a course be allowed for 
a single year in the term of an officer. It has not 
been allowed heretofore. A bishop should hold a 



64 TJie Abiding Comforter. 

presiding elder strictly to his own work, and the 
Book Committee should exercise similar authority 
over all official editors. God and the Christian world 
expect us to be faithful to our trust, and not allow 
unsound men to spread doctrinal discord among our 
people. 



CHAPTER V. 

OPINIONS OF lEADING WRITERS. 
" Multitude of years should teacli wisdom." 

HAVING promised to ^* banish and drive away 
all false and strange doctrines contrary to 
God's word," I deem it an especial duty to oppose 
such doctrines as are most likely to bewilder and 
mislead the young and inexperienced in spiritual 
life. For the benefit of such as have just entered on 
a course of piety, and not merely in reply to the 
arguments of any one, I feel compelled to say a few 
words more in the beginning of this chapter in rela- 
tion to the book before referred to. 

Quite sure am I that any one who had just entered 
into the new spiritual life of a gracious state, if he 
were to read Brother Crane's book, would not know 
himself Darkness would follow at once. He would 
feel his feebleness and fear, with occasional doubts 
as to whether his change ought to be relied on as 
genuine. He would turn away, if he believed what 
he read, and say, " I was mistaken ; I am yet in my 
sins." How little theorists dream of the mischief 
they do by a few strokes of their pens ! Isaac put 
the blessing on the wrong man, being deceived. But 
it is hard to deceive a sincere man into a belief of his 
6 * E 65 



G6 The Abiding Comforicr. 

own purity when he doesn't feel it. He cares not for 
your dogmas. The doctrine would be new to him. 
A man may dream when asleep that he is rich, but 
will know better when he awakes. 

Dr. Crane's doctrine is new to Methodism. Our 
people have not been so taught before. A few incon- 
spicuous persons in New York, in 1827, who held 
views similar to his, made some talk, but did no good. 
A Mr. Waldo was their principal man. One of them 
caused the writer some trouble by reason of his un- 
subdued temper, in Morristown, in 1828, at the begin- 
ning of the great revival. He made a few converts 
to his theories, but they soon forgot them after he 
left the town. He professed holiness because he had 
been regenerated and adopted, and loved to argue 
the question just as Dr. Crane has done. His rea- 
soning was precisely similar; yet his temper was so 
irascible that I feared to reason with him about his 
views. But, like all other fallacies, it soon died out. 
God did not give it what is always deemed his sanc- 
tion — success. It therefore vanished away without 
leaving a scar on the Church — the fate which I pre- 
dict for Brother Crane's views. In a large commu- 
nion like ours, where the evidence of the incipient 
work of grace greatly varies in its clearness — one 
being certain and another doubtful whether the 
change was real or deceptive — such views will occa- 
sionally be held ; for we, as a people, attach more 
importance to a clear knowledge of sins forgiven in 
the outset than most churches. 



opinions of Leading Writers. 6j 

Our conferences have hitherto watched with much 
care every stray from Methodist doctrine in our min- 
istry. We have been wise in so doing, as we have 
thereby preserved our own unity. As this of Dr. 
Crane's is the first book that has been pubhshed by 
one of our ministers in opposition to our standard 
doctrines on this subject, as preached by Wesley and 
the fathers, we shall see whether the brethren of the 
Newark Conference will let it pass unobjected to. 

This is no ** question of mere curiosity," as Mr. 
Wesley says, " or of little importance whether it be 
determined one way or another. Rather it is a 
point of utmost moment to every serious Christian, 
the resolving of which very nearly concerns both his 
present and eternal happiness." 

Experience has taught all practical and spiritually- 
minded pastors that this is true. Were any one pro- 
fessing a spiritual change to be told by a pastor in 
whom he confided that he was now cleansed from 
"all filthiness of the flesh and spirit" — that he would 
henceforth feel no anger, pride, revenge or lust — how 
long would it be before he came to the conclusion 
that he had been deceived, that really no change had 
as yet taken place within him ? I am sure this would 
have been the case with the writer, and but few are, 
or ever have been, more clearly converted and regen- 
erated than he was ; and I cannot now call up a 
single new convert in the course of a somewhat 
extended ministry but would have been in similar 
doubt and perplexity. Satan's devices are multiform ; 



68 The Abiding Comforter. 

and perhaps the views pubHshed by Brother Crane 
are the most dangerous to the stabiHty of faith, in 
those recently born of God, of any that could be 
uttered. The doctor, as it seems to me, would be a 
bad counselor of young converts in the time of 
revivals. 

What say the leading authorities ? In a contro- 
versy like the one Doctor Crane assumes, and in 
which he takes ground new and strange, it is natural 
to inquire. What say the fathers in the Church, the 
leading writers and leading names of the most deeply 
devoted to God, men who have been taught of the 
Spirit in the deep things of God ? This last means 
of light is more important than most professors are 
apt to think. " The natural man understandeth not 
the things of the Spirit, they are foolishness unto 
him, neither can he know them, because they are 
spiritually discerned." 

Hear the Rev. John Wesley : '* When does in- 
ward sanctification begin? In the moment a man is 
justified. Yet sin remains in him — yea, the seed of 
all sin — till he is sanctified throughout. Does sin 
remain in one that believes in Christ? Is there any 
sin in them that are born of God, or are they wholly 
delivered from it ? Let no one imagine that to be a 
question of mere curiosity. It is a point of utmost 
importance to all Christians." 

" When born again, are we entirely changed ? 
Are we wholly transformed into the image of Him 
that created us ? Far from it ; we still retain a 



opinions of Leading Writers. 69 

depth of sin, and it is the consciousness of this 
which constrains us to groan for a full deliverance 
to Him who is mighty to save. The new birth is 
not the same as sanctification." 

Hear the Rev. John Fletcher : '' We do not deny 
that the remains of the carnal mind still cleave to 
imperfect Christians. The same spirit of faith which 
initially purifies our hearts when we cordially be- 
lieve the pardoning love of God completely cleanses 
them when we fully believe his sanctifying love." 

Hear the Rev. Richard Watson : " That a dis- 
tinction exists between a regenerate state and a 
state of entire and perfect holiness will be generally 
allowed. To prove this, two passages only need be 
quoted. I Thess. v. 23 : ' And the very God of 
peace sanctify you wholly ; and I pray God your 
whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blame- 
less unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.' 
2 Cor. viii. i : ' Having these promises, dearly be- 
loved (regenerated certainly), let us cleanse ourselves 
from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting 
holiness in the fear of God,' the entire sanctification 
of the soul and spirit, as well as of the flesh and 
body, from all sin, all inward depravation of the 
heart. 

" The apostles set before all believers, both in the 
prayers they offer in their behalf and in the exhorta- 
tions they administer, a still higher degree of deliv- 
erance from sin, as well ,as a higher growth in 
Christian virtues." 



70 - The Abiding Comforter. 

Hear Dr. George Peck. After a long argument, 
with a variety of proofs, he reaches this conclusion : 
" The result, then, to which I come is that the the- 
ory which asserts that entire sanctification invari- 
ably takes place when a man is justified is incon- 
sistent with fact and experience'' He then goes on 
to prove it by many Scriptures, and adds : ** The 
doctrine of entire sanctification, as a distinct work 
wrought in the soul by the Holy Ghost, is the great 
distinguishing doctrine of Methodism. This given 
up, we have little left which we do not hold in 
common with other evangelical denominations." 
** The position that justification and entire sanctifica- 
tion take place at one and the same time, and that 
regeneration and entire sanctification are identical, is 
clearly contrary to the position taken by our standard 
theologians." " Would it not be a sad indication of 
the degeneracy of Methodism in this country if what 
Mr. Wesley, under God our great founder, considered 
heresy, and opposed with all his might, should be 
cherished as the very marrow of the gospel by the 
ministers and people of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church?" 

Dr. George Peck, here quoted, is the venerable 
father-in-law (still living) of Dr. Crane. The father 
is sound, Methodistic and scriptural ; the son-in-law 
is neither, as we have already seen. The blessed 
Master said that '' the father would be against the 
son, and the son against the father." Herein is this 
prediction fulfilled. The father threw all his influ- 



opinions of Leading Writers. j i 

ence during a long life in favor of the full sanctifica- 
tion of believers ; the son has done all he could to in- 
duce them to be content with the first incipient work 
of grace in their hearts, telling them they are fully 
cleansed already. What a pity that young opinion- 
ated men cannot be induced to be quiet until experi- 
ence fully teaches them what philosophy and books 
never can teach ! 

Bishop Foster : " Believers are not by virtue of 
the new birth entirely free from sin, either as it re- 
spects the inward taint or outward occasional act. I 
need scarcely insist upon this, it is so universally the 
faith of the Church. Let any Christian clearly inter- 
rogate his experience and consciousness upon this 
point, and see whether the immediate response will 
not be that, though pardoned and consciously born 
of the Spirit, still there are sinful tendencies and dis- 
positions lurking in his heart ; he is not entirely 
empty of sin, he is not entirely holy. He will find 
pride, envy, jealousy, anger, impatience, love of the 
world, dissimulation, self-willedness and such like." 

" But sin committed and depravity felt are very 
different ; the one is an action, the other a state of 
the affections. But it is asked. Is not the work of 
God perfect in regeneration ? Regeneration is in- 
cipient sanctification in this sense — it is of the same 
nature; it is included in entire sanctification, but is 
not so extensive ; it is a degree, but not the whole, 
of that work." 

Dr. Adam Clarke says : ** I have been twenty-three 



72 The Abiding Comforter. 

years a traveling preacher, and have been acquainted 
with some thousands of Christians during that time 
who were in different states of grace, and I never, 
to my knowledge, met with a single instance where 
God both justified and sanctified at the same time." 
Our own Church requires all her ministers at 
their ordination to answer these questions affirm- 
atively : " Have you faith in Christ?" meaning, Are 
you regenerated ? " Are you going on to perfec- 
tion ?" '' Do you expect to be made perfect in love 
in this life?" "Are you groaning after it?" The 
Church presumes, of course, that no man would seek 
ordination unless he was a regenerated, pious man. 
She requires him to seek a higher experience — 
namely, perfection in love. He must believe in it, 
expect it, groan after it, or declare he does, or the 
bishop would not lay his hands on his head. Dr. 
Crane has either changed his doctrinal views, or he 
was not sincere at the time of his ordination. Which 
alternative will he accept? If he has changed his 
views, which he has a perfect right to do, he is 
bound as an honest man to change his Church rela- 
tions and join a party with whose views he can affil- 
iate. It would not take the writer long to decide the 
case were he in his circumstances. 

DR. FULLER. 

Rev. Richard Fuller of Baltimore, a delegate to 
the Evangelical Alliance Meeting in New York, and 
a distinguished Baptist minister, read a paper before 



opinions of Leading Writers, 73 

that body, from which I will take a few extracts, to 
show that experience is the same in all communions 
on the doctrine of sin in believers and their need 
of the cleansing power of divine grace subsequent 
to regeneration. 

'* It is a melancholy fact that we have all been 
sadly disappointed in the hopes which inspired our 
hearts when we were first converted to God. 
Having tasted the love of Jesus, rejoicing in him 
with a joy unspeakable and full of glory, we believed 
that we were for ever delivered from the solicitations 
of sin. But too soon this joy withered away from 
us ; too soon the truth broke in bitterly upon us 
that we were not wholly sanctified ; too soon we 
were amazed and humbled by the consciousness of 
remaining corruptions. Is this, however, to be for 
ever the Christian's experience ? Must the prodigal 
even after his return still be continually grieving his 
Father ? Must God be always thus dishonored by 
the motions of sin in his own children? Is it neces- 
sary that a cloud should ever separate between Jesus 
and the soul he has redeemed ? We can scarcely 
adopt a system which so mocks the highest, holiest 
aspirations of the * new creature.' Surely God has 
not quickened in us a hungering and thirsting after 
holiness which is not to be filled. * The water that 
I shall give him shall be in him a well of water 
springing up into everlasting life.' This cannot 
mean that there is to be in us a fountain for ever 
sending up impure and poisonous waters ? No, and 
7 



74 Tlie Abiding Comforter. 

again no. Let us not be calculating how much a 
Christian must sin ; let us not be examining care- 
fully how much sinning is indispensable* to true or- 
thodoxy; let us not vacate the exceeding great 
and precious promises of the Bible and limit the 
Holy Spirit, by whom we are sanctified, and depre- 
ciate the efficacy of that faith * which purifies the 
heart,' of that hope which engages us to ' be pure 
as Christ is pure,' and thus deduct from the virtue 
of that atonement the effect of which should be 
that we walk in the security of an imputed and in 
the joy of an imparted righteousness. 

" Nor will it avail much for our growth in personal 
holiness that we specify the besetting sin and peculiar 
hindrances with which each Christian has to contend, 
some of which are in the body, others in the mind, 
others in the heart — the most formidable in the imag- 
ination. Nor will a cure be made by prescribing the 
usual antidotes and precautions, such as fasting and 
prayer and meditation and reading the word of God. 
No. Pondering for years this eternally momentous 
subject, with much prayer, many tears and after 
most mortifying experiences, one great truth now 
possesses me with all the certainty of perfect con- 
viction. It is that with the children of God the 
chief cause of such deplorable deficiency in holiness 
is the defect in our conceptions as to the way of ho- 
liness revealed in the gospel. Enlightened as to a 
full, free, present forgiveness through faith in Jesus, 
the error of those who go to the law, to their own 



opinions of Leading Writers. 75 

efforts, for absolution from the penalty of sin seems 
to us the strangest blindness ; but we forget that 
salvation from the power and corruption of sin — 
from sin itself — must be in the same way, 

** Coming to Jesus, casting your soul with all its 
interests upon him, you received all you came for. 
You experienced the peace and blessedness of par- 
don ; and such was the gratitude and love glowing 
in your bosom that, ' being made free from sin, you 
became servants of righteousness.' But did this 
deadness to sin continue ? Did the expulsive po- 
tency of this new affection permanently dislodge the 
evil propensities of your nature ? On the contrary, 
no mortification can be more substantial than that 
you have felt at the revival of the life and power of 
sin within you. And now, why is this ? Why but 
that you sought holiness by the law, and not by 
faith ? Nothing could be more sincere than your 
resolutions, promises and efforts, but the humbling 
sense of their utter insufficiency caused you in an- 
guish to exclaim, * O wretched man that I am ! who 
shall deliver me from the body of this death ?' Nor 
did you find relief, peace, strength, victory over your 
corruptions, until you repaired to the P'ountain open 
for sin and uncleanness — until, looking to Jesus as 
you did at first for pardon, you uttered that exultant 
shout, ' I thank God through Jesus Christ, our 
Lord.' 

"'Abide in me,' says Jesus — 'in me,' not in a 
Church, *in me,' not in your own works. Of course 



76 The Abiding Comforter. 

the life of every true disciple of the Redeemer will 
be a life of self-denial. Every evangelical grace sup- 
poses and requires daily self-denial. Nor only so. 
The sins most fatal to Christians require and suppose 
self-denial ; for it is not through insincerity or evil 
intentions, but through indolence, effeminacy, excess 
in lawful things, that those who are really converted 
so often dishonor the holy name they bear and pierce 
themselves through with many sorrows. Yet for all 
this, it is true that in subduing our depravities one 
act of faith is worth a whole lifetime of attempted 
faithfulness. As the smallest skiff, if sound, will 
bear a. passenger to a richly-furnished ship, so the 
feeblest act of faith, if it be genuine, will unite the 
soul to Him in whom dwelleth all the treasures of 
grace and strength, and who * of God is made unto 
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemp- 
tion.' 

" Let us not be imposed upon by external 
triumphs. The true kingdom of Jesus is spiritual 
and interior. It is the empire of truth over the mind, 
of holiness over the heart and the life. Inward sanc- 
tity, pure, constraining love to God and man, sincere 
obedience where Jesus reigns, — these are the elements 
of his sovereignty, and without these no outward 
homage can make us his real disciples. 

" If we are to be useful in winning souls, in ad- 
vancing the true interests of the Redeemer, the secret 
is not genius nor learning; it is, as David declares, 
a clean heart, the constant presence and power of the 



opinions of Leadijtg Writers. 77 

Holy Ghost. If we are to enjoy spiritual happiness, 
if the joy of the Lord is to be our strength, the con- 
science must be purified from the stain of sin, and 
we must live every day in the consciousness of en- 
tire consecration to Jesus. 'The kingdom of God,' 
the reign of Christ, is ' righteousness, peace and joy 
in the Holy Ghost.' It is first holiness, then peace 
and blessedness." 

This extract shows how near all churches are 
coming to each other — how near we are in doctrine, 
in our views and in experience. By cleaving closely 
to the divine oracles we shall soon all be one in 

Christ Jesus. The outlook is truly hopeful, 

7* 



CHAPTER VI. 

TESTIMOXY OF EXPERIEXCE. 

"We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen." 

REV. JOHN \YESLEY. 

THAT there are enemies to the recent movement 
in this land to promote Scriptural holiness 
should surprise no one. Some may see danger in 
it. while others abhor it because they neither see nor 
feel their own needs. Their opposition is indirect 
rather than direct. They wish to discourage rather 
than oppose directly ; hence the doctor says that Wes- 
ley and the fathers of the Church never professed per- 
fect love. " The great body of our people do not now ; 
the leading minds shun it generally." Dr. Crane is a 
little bolder than others of like opinions, hear him 
in his new theolog}' to defend a theory and prevent 
his readers from seeking or professing holiness ; I 
really can see no other motive : " Paul the aged, the 
inspired apostle of Christ, in the twenty-sixth year 
of his ministry, and only six years before his martyr- 
dom, confesses that he is not cleansed." We shall 
not be surprised after this. 

The doctor catalogues the fathers who never pro- 



Testimony of Experience. 79 

fessed holiness. This he need not have done if it is 
true that St. Paul and Mr. Wesley carried the scars 
of inbred sin with them to their graves crying, " O 
wretched man that I am !" In such a case we who 
preach perfect love are defeated. We need a new 
translation of the New Testament, from which the 
words holiness and perfect love are blotted out. 
Like the stars, such a state of grace may be beauti- 
ful to look at; but being too far off, we need not hope 
to reach it while in the body. It looks cruel to set 
a smoking feast before a hungry, starving man, and 
yet keep it so far off he cannot taste it. This kind 
of discouraging preaching has been too common. 
God requires no more than he enables us to render. 
When he says, " Be ye holy, for I the Lord your God 
am holy," he means a purity which can be attained 
by us. Any other presumption would dishonor God, 
by making him a hard master, laying on us burdens 
we could not bear. He invites all men to a fellow- 
ship with himself, in holy communion, in joyous 
worship. 

Mr. Wesley is said never to have professed perfect 
love. He was a prudent man, I know, and I admire 
that in him. The storm of opposition was fearful. 
His profession would prove nothing. He knew this 
well, and appealed only to the Scriptures ; but his 
silence in relation to his own experience in perfect 
love is no more marked than on his regeneration. 
*' His heart was strangely warmed," that is all. Why 
not deny that he was justified and regenerated be- 



8o The Abiding Comforter. 

cause he said so little about it? The argument 
would be equally true and strong in one case as in 
the other. Where do we hear him say he had the 
witness of his adoption ? He was wise in sustaining 
both states of grace, the higher and the lower, by the 
word of God alone. 

But Mr. Wesley did profess perfect love, Mr. Tyer- 
man and my good friend Dr. Crane to the contrary 
notwithstanding. So I believe and will try to show. 
In a letter to Lady Huntingdon, he says : '' Many 
years since, I saw that without holiness no man shall 
see the Lord. I began following after it, and inciting 
all with whom I had any intercourse to do the same. 
Ten years after, God gave me a clearer view than I 
had before of the way how to obtain this — namely 
by faith in the Son of God." A clear statement that 
God fully revealed his Son in him. ''And immedi- 
ately I declared to all, we are saved from sin, we are 
made holy by faith. This I testified in private, in 
public, in print, and God confirmed it by a thousand 
witnesses." *' God gave me to see." This is strong 
personal testimony. We accept such testimony now 
as a profession of personal experience without cavil ; 
why deny it in Mr. Wesley? And he showed the 
fruits instantly ; he told the story in all possible 
forms. Men in doubt do not do this ; confident, 
assured men can't keep silent. "What he had felt 
and seen with confidence he told." 'Tis always so. 
No historical fact is better sustained by collateral 
testimony. Thousands came into the same rich ex- 



Testimony of Experience. 8 1 

perience by hearing him preach it, '' with the Holy 
Ghost sent down from heaven." God does not wit- 
ness to what is false. " I have continued to declare 
this for above thirty years, and God hath continued 
to confirm the word of his grace." 

This is profession enough to satisfy us — yea, all 
who have tasted of God's perfect love. But the 
one who has prejudged the case objects. To 
such no proof is satisfactory. After that his life 
resembled, not that of the apostles prior to Christ's 
death, but that of their ministry after the Holy 
Ghost had come on them at Pentecost. They 
were converted men before, as was Mr. Wesley, but 
neither had strength enough to face the world, mobs 
and death, until the Holy Ghost came to fill them 
with "power from on high." The apostles gave no 
better evidence of this full power from on high in all 
their after lives than did this same John Wesley. 
Compare their history as I have done, and you will 
see it. 

He urged all, both preachers and people, to seek 
holiness. The work could not go on without it. He 
urged all who had it to profess it. Did any one ever 
say to him, " Physician, heal thyself" ? Had he not 
professed it, this would have been said over and over 
again. No man can preach an experience with suc- 
cess that he has not himself I know the map of 
England by study, but could not advise a traveler 
there which road to take if he were bewildered. One 
who had traveled the roads, though unable to read, 

F 



82 The Abiding Comforter. 

would be a better guide than I. Apply this to Mr. 
Wesley, as a guide in the way of holiness, and you 
will be compelled to admit that he both enjoyed and 
professed the blessing of the higher life which he 
preached to others. All saw and felt the truth when 
he preached it, because it was ** in him a well of 
water springing up unto everlasting life." His letter 
to Dr. Dodd does not contradict this, as I shall now 
try to prove. 

It has been the wonder of many that Mr. Wesley 
should have made the doctrine of holiness, as a dis- 
tinct gift of grace, so prominent in his teaching 
during his long life, and yet say so little of his own 
experience of its benefits. But we have seen that he 
said as little of regeneration — his first chang-e from 
nature to grace. A single remark as to the " strange 
warming of his heart" in Aldergate street was suf- 
ficient. If he ever wrote another line concerning his 
own regeneration, I have lost the recollection of it. 
Who ever disputed, or even doubted, that he was 
spiritually regenerated because of his silence in rela- 
tion to it? Men who lead the devotions of the 
Church usually say much more of their spiritual 
state than they write. But few of the leading writers 
referred to above say a word of their own experi- 
ence. This there can be no doubt was the case with 
him, because the world was watching for an opportu- 
nity to entangle him by his written statements. He 
was therefore extremely cautious, and desired to 
establish the faith of his people, as well as all who 



Testimony of Experience. 83 

heard him, solely on the testimony of the divine or- 
acles. This he did, or it would not have lasted so long. 
The question may and should be put to any man 
of experience whether, in the history of the Church, 
any reformer, minister or Christian laborer has ever 
successfully established an experience in others that 
he had not tasted or felt himself This I believe to 
be perfectly impossible. The history of the Church 
does not present one example of it so far as I know. 
Philosophy would pronounce it utterly impossible. 
An unwelcome truth is always received with reluc- 
tance in any community. To fully establish it on a 
large scale requires no ordinary earnestness on the 
part of its propagators. To lead men to hunger for 
a state of grace that is unpopular, and to attain 
which requires the plucking out the right eye, deep 
humiliation of soul, a self-denial that does not wince 
at the loss of all things dear to the flesh, is not 
begotten by cold reasoners on the fitness of things. 
The successful preacher who moves the multitude to 
seek for such a grace in the face of such sacrifices 
must have the Holy Ghost in him, and experiment- 
ally feel the power of the salvation he teaches. He 
cannot succeed without this. No man ever did or 
ever will. A man must be on fire himself, or others 
will not feel it. Here alone is to be found the true 
reason for the non-success of some ministers in all 
the churches of this and every land. They are dry, 
not from natural but spiritual causes. Their hearts 
are not right with God ; they are not fully sanctified 



84 The Abiding Coviforter. 

by grace. Men will always teach and believe as they 
feel. Water will not rise above its fountain. Holi- 
ness never has been preached successfully by one 
who did not enjoy the blessing of it himself 

But Mr. Wesley did preach it successfully for forty 
years together. It was his theme in the pulpit, in the 
press and in all his extensive correspondence, as his 
letters abundantly show. Perfect love, holiness as a 
blessing received subsequently to regeneration, was his 
daily theme to the last of his life. He did more : he 
believed that God raised up the Methodists as a peo- 
ple to spread this same scriptural holiness over all 
lands. Why did he so believe and teach ? It was a 
new truth to him until God gave him to see it. After 
that he did not, and could not, cease to proclaim it, 
because it was like a fire within him. Could he 
have so believed, preached, written, labored and suf- 
fered through a long life, amidst evil and good 
report, without personally knowing in his own soul 
that what he taught was experimentally true ? If he 
experienced the grace himself, he of course confessed 
it before all his people, whether he wrote about it or 
not. He would not have been consistent with him- 
self had he not done so ; for he says : " Every one 
ought to declare what God hath done for his soul ; 
nothing is a stronger incentive to them to seek after 
the same blessing." If that is true, was Mr. Wes- 
ley the man to neglect to use the strongest argu- 
ments, the mightiest means, in the promotion of his 
great theme, the real work of his life ? 



Testimony of Experience. 85 

His preaching in any place always planted a burn- 
ing desire for full salvation, a hungering for God, even 
the living God, among most people who heard him. 
Had his soul not been on fire with his theme by a 
felt experience, it could not have been so. He could 
not have urged others to profess its enjoyment and 
decline to do so himself They would have replied 
to his arguments. Why do you not do yourself what 
you so urge on us ? You lay burdens on us you do 
not bear yourself Go before us in this higher life 
and its open profession, and we will follow after you, 
but cease to urge on us what you do not do yourself 
Into such absurdities do ministers and laymen drive 
Mr. Wesley, who, parrot-like, cry out that he never 
professed perfect love. 

But Mr. Wesley says, as we have before shown, in 
his letter to Lady Huntingdon, that he preached and 
urged its attainment on all over whom he had influ- 
ence immediately after the Lord had revealed it to 
himself, and not before. 

His letter to Dr. Dodd, so confidently referred to 
by both Mr. Tyerman and Dr. Crane, is not incon- 
sistent with this teaching, and, as I view it, is capable 
of easy explanation. It was published in the '' Even- 
ing Post," April 3, 1757, in reply to an attack made 
on him by Dr. Dodd in the " Christian Magazine." 
Mr. Wesley says in the letter : " Five or six and 
thirty years ago I much admired the character of a 
perfect Christian, drawn by Clemens Alexandrinus. 
Five or six and twenty years ago a thought came 



86 The Abiding Comforter. 

into my mind of drawing such a character myself, 
only in a more scriptural manner, and mostly in the 
very words of Scripture. This I entitled * The 
Character of a Methodist.' But that none might 
imagine that I intended a panegyric upon either 
myself or my friends, I guarded against this in the 
very title page, saying, * Not as though I had already 
attained, or was already perfect.' To the same effect 
I speak in the conclusion these are the principles 
and practice of our sect, these are the marks of a 
true Methodist (that is, a true Christian). By these 
alone do those who are in derision so called desire 
to be distinguished from other men. By these 
marks do we labor to distinguish ourselves from 
those whose minds or lives are not according to the 
gospel of Christ." 

Upon this. Dr. Dodd says, *' A Methodist, accord- 
ing to Mr. Wesley, is one who is perfect, and sinneth 
not in thought, word or deed." Mr. Wesley replies : 
** This is not according to Mr. Wesley. I have told 
all the world I am not perfect ; I tell you flat I have 
not attained the character I draw. Will you pin it 
upon me in spite of my teeth ? I say the Metho- 
dists desire to be distinguished by these marks." 
Mr. Tyerman and Dr. Crane adduce this open letter 
as positive proof that Mr. Wesley never enjoyed or 
professed perfect love. Being compelled to differ 
from both these learned and respectable writers, it is 
meet, right and my bounden duty to show why I 
believe they are in error. 



Testimony of Experience. 8/ 

MR. Wesley's experience in holiness. 

I. Mr. Wesley drew the character of a perfect 
Christian strictly after the New Testament type. 
He veered not to the right or left to meet the views 
or allow for the infirmities of even the best. There 
is a standard for all coins — in pure metal there is no 
alloy. Whether what you or I have, comes up to 
the standard is not a question with the assayist ; he 
must not lower the standard to meet that. Nor did 
Mr. Wesley dare to do this in showing the perfect 
type of a Christian. Hear him in his description 
of a perfect believer, in the tract in question : " He 
is dead to all that is in the world." " There is not a 
motion in his heart but is according to God's will." 
" Every thought that arises points to him." " He 
cannot lay up treasure upon earth." '' He cannot 
adorn himself, on any pretence, with gold or costly 
apparel." '* He cannot utter an unkind word of any 
one." *' He cannot speak idle words." All which is 
in precise accord with the New Testament type of 
Christian character. No wonder he said : " I have 
not attained the character I draw." He and his 
people, he said, desired to be distinguished by these 
marks ; but he had told all the world that neither he 
nor his people professed to have fully reached this 
scriptural standard. They were not perfect in this 
high sense. 

A single passage in Paul's Epistle to the Ephesi- 
ans clearly shows the different degrees of holy love 



88 The Abiding Comforter. 

and experience here recognized by i\Ir. Wesley. 
*' That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may 
be able to comprehend with all saints what is the 
breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to 
know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, 
that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." 
I know not one of all who now profess to have been 
made perfect in love but can use the language of 
Mr. Wesley : '' Have us excused ; we have not at- 
tained this state ; we are hungering, and desire to be 
filled with all this fullness of God. We have come 
to the holy mount, but have not yet reached its 
summit," 

2. It will be seen that Mr. Wesley puts his own 
experience on a level with that of his people. He 
claims as much for himself as he does for them. 
And Dr. Crane, as well as the biographer of ^Nlr. 
Wesley, admits that six hundred and fifty-two in 
London alone had professed to have received the 
blessing of perfect love ; and after a full personal ex- 
amination of every one of them, Mr. Wesley and 
Thomas Walsh were satisfied that they were not de- 
ceived themselves or deceiving others. I may say 
in passing, that he could not have examined others 
in the science or experience of a holiness of which 
he knew nothing himself It requires a Hebrew 
scholar to examine and pass a class of students in 
Hebrew. It seems to me that the single fact of his 
examining and approving the experience of so many 
whom he alone had taught in the higher life of per- 



Testimony of Experience. 89 

feet love establishes the other fact — namely, his own 
experience in the same grace. At all events, he de- 
nies no more in relation to himself in his letter to 
Dr. Dodd than he does for all the people called 
Methodists. I wonder that neither his biographer 
nor Dr. Crane seems to have seen this. He had come 
as near to the character he drew as had any of his 
people who confessedly did openly profess it. "A 
Methodist," says Dr. Dodd, " according to Mr. Wes- 
ley, is perfect, and sinneth not in thought, word or 
deed." Mr. Wesley replies : " Have me excused ; 
this is not according to Mr. Wesley." " But Mr. 
Wesley says other Methodists have." "/ say no 
such thing. I say we desire^ we labor, to thus dis- 
tinguish ourselves." I have been thus particular 
that all men may see that Mr. Wesley claimed at least 
as much for himself as for any of his people, and 
no more. And Dr. Crane and Mr. Tyerman both 
say that many in his societies professed perfect love, 
and he believed they were not deceived. 

3. Mr. Wesley admits that Mr. Fletcher had 
reached a much higher experience — had come very 
much nearer the character he had drawn than him- 
self or any of his people. Of him Mr. Wesley 
says : " I was intimately acquainted with him for 
above thirty years ; I conversed with him morning, 
noon and night, without the least reserve, during a 
journey of many hundred miles, and in all that 
time I never heard him speak one improper word 
nor saw him do an improper action. To conclude, 



90 TJie Abiding Comfoi'ter. 

many exemplary men have I known, holy in heart 
and life, within four score years, but one equal to 
him I have not known — one so inwardly and out- 
wardly devoted to God. So unblamable a character, 
in every respect, I have not found either in Europe 
or America, nor do I expect to find another such 
on this side of eternity. As it is possible we all 
may be such as he was, let us endeavor to follow him 
as he followed Christ." 

The testimony of Mrs. Fletcher is even more full 
and explicit, with which I could fill a hundred pages 
were it necessary ; a word or two will suffice. She 
says : *' I am constrained to declare that I never 
knew any one walk so closely in the w^ays of God as 
he did. He literally preferred the interest of every 
one to his own. Perfectly loose from all attachment 
to the world^ he shared his all with the poor, who lay 
so close to his heart that at the approach of death he 
cried out, ' O my poor ! What will become of my 
poor? 

He carried his religion far above that of i\Ir. 
Wesley or any of his people, as was well known 
then, and has been ever since admitted by all who 
have been conversant with the facts in the case. So 
strong was his faith, and so uninterrupted his com- 
munion wath God, that they almost made the future 
present and the unseen visible. But even this lofty 
experience was not above the picture drawn by Mr. 
Wesley of a New Testament Christian. It w^as 
hardly necessary for that good man, Mr. Wesley, 



Testimony of Experience. 91 

who lived in an atmosphere of perfect love, to say, 
" I have not attained the character I draw." I am not 
perfect in that high sense. We all can see the true 
state of the case who read the story of his life and 
labors. Nor did he claim it for any of his people 
any more than for himself He saw the attainable 
heights he or they had not reached, and which Mr. 
Fletcher had come much nearer to than any he had 
ever known. But he does not say he did not enjoy 
perfect love in the degree to which he had led his 
people to seek for and profess it. He evidently 
loved God with all his heart, and his neighbor as 
himself His whole life and labors are the fruits of 
such a love, and by these we are taught to form our 
estimate of what actuates the heart. 

In my opinion the following facts are herein estab- 
lished beyond successful contradiction : 

1. That Mr. Wesley intended to and did recite his 
own experience in holiness in his letter to Lady 
Huntingdon : " God gave me to see, and immediately 
I declared to all, we are saved from sijz, we are made 
holy by faith!' 

2. That he never declared more clearly his own 
justification, his principal profession of it being simply 
in these words : '' My heart was strangely warmed." 
Little more is said of it in all his writings. 

3. He deemed it the duty of all to testify of per- 
fect love who had received it, urged all his people 
to do so, and God, as he always has and ever will, 
owned and blessed such recital of personal experi- 



92 The Abiding Comforter. 

ence. After that he could not consistently withhold 
his own. 

4. That his letter to Dr. Dodd does not prove that 
he did not profess the perfect love or holiness which 
he preached almost daily, and which six hundred 
and fifty-two of his members professed to have re- 
ceived in London alone, and which after full exam- 
ination he approved as genuine. It was the high 
New Testament type of divine communion which 
he had taught in his tract, and which neither himself 
nor his people had reached, and which Mr. Fletcher 
had come so much nearer to than either he or they 
had, that he declares he had not attained. 



CHAPTER VII. 

TESTIMONY OF EXPERIENCE.— Continued. 
" Ye are the light of the world," 

EXPERIENCE OF THE FATHERS. 

AS there may be many in our Church, and indeed 
in all Churches, who may not be familiar with 
the published experiences of the fathers on the 
higher life of perfect love, I will recite a few of them. 
This has always been deemed a foundation doctrine 
of our system. Those who teach that pardon and 
purity are the same thing, and secured at the same 
time, strike at a vital point in Methodism — un- 
wittingly, I hope — if not at Christianity itself; for if 
Christ came to save at all, it was to open upon each 
mind and heart the light it was able to bear at first, 
and afterward to " lead into all truth and purity," 
fully " destroying the works of the devil " in the 
soul. The mother wisely hides the strong light 
from the infant's eyes, as it could not bear it till 
more mature. And Christ said he had much more 
light to give his disciples, " but they were not yet 
able to bear it." An awakened penitent seeks par- 
don and peace, and receives what he craves by faith 
in the promises. He sees nothing beyond this at 

93 



94 l^h^ Abiding Comforter. 

that time. Light on the hoHness of God and his 
law comes afterward, and then he hungers for per- 
fect conformity to all the divine will. The history 
of the progress of religion in the soul is uniform in 
all the ages. How easy it is for a man to exhibit 
his own defects just here ! 

Whenever conscious, felt communion with God in 
holiness and perfect love is rejected as false, fanatical 
and unscriptural, then the witness of the Spirit to our 
adoption and sonship is also deemed a delusion. 
Both experiences are usually rejected if either one 
is. It always has been so as far as my experience 
has gone. And then all religion is reduced to the 
mere outward service of the lip and bended knee, 
the book of forms and orthodox opinions. Thus has 
religion been driven out of the world for ages by its 
professed friends ; but God raised up the Wesleys to 
spread holy love, true scriptural heart purity and 
Christian joy over the world. We have followed 
their faith, and have preached both the witness of 
the Spirit to our pardon and adoption and the 
power of Christ to cleanse from all sin. Forty or 
more years since, my circuit included Brother Crane's 
present district and very much more contiguous ter- 
ritory. We had to contend there more ardently for 
the knowledge of pardon and forgiveness of sins as 
the privilege of believers than we do now among cold 
professors for the higher life of holiness. The wit- 
ness of the Spirit was generally condemned as the 
fanaticism of ignorant and uneducated enthusiasts. 



Testimony of Experience. 95 

Religion then and there was accepted as true and 
reliable that consisted in hoping in and fearing 
God; all beyond this was deemed false and deceptive. 
Methodists have had to fight for every inch of 
ground in spiritual life and joyous worship from the 
time they entered the north-eastern portion of New 
Jersey until almost the entire population think as we 
do. We have never deemed the entrance upon a 
new spiritual life a finality or ripeness in Christian 
grace and deep experience. A higher life of holiness 
and perfect love has been insisted on in all our his- 
tory. All the sermons, flights of fancy and mis- 
chievous books written by such as have fallen into 
error on the deep things of God, can never change 
either Methodist opinion or the facts of universal 
experience. The doctrine that perfect holiness is 
secured in regeneration too flatly contradicts what 
regenerate men know to be true within themselves, to 
be acceptable to good men in any denomination. I 
most pity Methodist ministers who fall into this 
error. I pity them in trying to keep up their love- 
feasts and class-meetings in the old way. Such 
views are utterly incompatible with the success of a 
pastor among our people. 

But the doctrine of Christian perfection is matter 
of personal experience, and always subsequent to 
justification. Mr. Wesley says : " Experience is suf- 
ficient to confirm a doctrine which is grounded on 
Scripture." In the list which we subjoin please 
notice several things: i. Every one testifying was 



96 The Abiding Comforter. 

consciously a Christian believer. 2. Each one was 
troubled with impulsions from within to do wrong ; 
these were arrested by the aid of grace before they 
eventuated in guilt. 3. Each one from these discov- 
eries sought for complete deliverance, and by a per- 
fect faith was lifted up and kept upon a plane above 
these embarrassments — on a plane where faith no 
longer grew dim, where such struggles never found 
place again, and where love flowed ever afterward in 
a steady, sweet and increasing current. 

BISHOP ASBURY, 

one of the number whom Brother Crane declares 
never professed holiness, says in his journal : " Some 
time after I had obtained a clear witness of my 
acceptance with God, the Lord showed me the evils 
of my heart. My heart and mouth are open, only I 
am still sensible of my deep insufficiency, and that 
mostly in regard to holiness. It is true God has 
given me some gifts, but what are they to holiness ? 
It is for holiness my spirit mourns. I want to walk 
constantly before God without reproof . . . Felt 
much power while preaching on perfect love. The 
more I speak on this subject, the more my soul is 
filled and drawn out in love. This doctrine has a 
great tendency to prevent people from settling on 
their lees. . . . My soul has had complete victory 
over all sin, and been blessed with peaceable and 
calm fellowship with the Father and the Son. I 
wanted to be holy as He that called me is holy. My 



■ Testimony of Experience. 9/ 

spirit mourns and hungers and thirsts after entire 
devotion." Having once lost the blessing, he says: 
** Last night the Lord re-sanctified my soul. ... I 
am divinely impressed to preach sanctification in 
every sermon." 

Most of the old preachers followed Mr. Wesley's 
counsel in this as well as Mr. Asbury. 

BISHOP WHATCOAT. 

Describing his own conversion, he says : '' I was 
filled with unspeakable peace and joy in believing; 
my faith and love grew stronger. I soon found that 
though I was justified freely, yet I was not wholly 
sanctified. This brought me into a deep concern. 
Evils I still found in my heart. After many sharp 
and painful conflicts, and many gracious visitations 
also, on the 28th of March, 1761, my soul was drawn 
out and engaged in a manner it never was before. 
Suddenly I was stripped of all but love, and in this 
happy state, rejoicing evermore, and in everything 
giving thanks, I continued for some years, wanting 
nothing for soul or body more than I received from 
day to day." 

REV. FREEBORN GARRETTSON. 

In the life of this excellent man, one of the early 
fathers of Methodism in this country, written by Dr. 
Bangs, it is said that, *' by the experience of an excel- 
lent lady, he learned that there was such a thing to 
attain in this life as perfect love," and he says, " I 

9 G 



98 The Abiding Comforter. 

knew I was not in possession of it. I saw a beauty 
in the doctrine, and preached it, but it was at a dis- 
tance." When on Roanoke Circuit, in North Caro- 
hna, he writes : " Respecting Christian perfection, I 
beHeved such a thing was attainable in this hfe. I 
therefore, both in public and in private, contended 
for it, and had often felt the need of it in my own 
soul, but I never had such a view of it in my life as 
while on this circuit The Lord, in a very powerful 
and sudden manner, gave me to see and feel the need 
of this blessed work. Every heart corruption was 
discovered to me by the blessed Spirit at the house 
of that dear afflicted mother in Israel, Mrs. Y. This 
discovery was made to me while I was alone in the 
preachers' room. I expected in a few moments to be 
in eternity, and the cry of my heart was, ' Lord, save 
me from inbred sin !' The purity of God, heaven 
and the law, with the impurity of my heart, were so 
disclosed to my view that I was humbled in the very 
dust, and expected never to enter into the kingdom 
of heaven without a greater likeness to my blessed 
Lord. For more than a week an earnest struggle 
continued in my heart for all the mind which was in 
Christ. My appointments were made, or I am appre- 
hensive I should have declined preaching so pure a 
gospel until the heart corruptions which I felt were 
washed away. Yet I did not let go my hold of the 
dear Redeemer, the witness of my justification. 

" One day I went to my appointment, and while 
the people were gathering I withdrew about a quar- 



Testimony of Experience. 99 

ter of a mile from the house and wrestled with the 
Lord in prayer. I thought I could not meet the 
congregation unless I was delivered from my inbred 
sins. However, after the people had waited about 
an hour, I went to the house ; but my struggle 
seemed to be at its height. I thought I would pray 
with the people and dismiss them. After prayer 
my Lord gave me this text : ' Blessed are the pure 
in heart, for they shall see God.' Never had I such 
freedom before that time to describe ist, the im- 
purity of the heart, 2nd, how it is to be purified, 
and 3d, the blessing resulting therefrom — ' they 
shall see God.' While I was speaking of the travail 
of a soul for purity all my distress vanished, and I 
felt a little heaven on earth. I know that the Lord 
deepened his work, but I did not claim the witness 
of perfect love ; yet my soul was happy from day to 
day. From this time I began to preach the doctrine 
of Christian perfection more than ever; the plan 
seemed as clear to me as the noonday sun. Many 
were convinced of the need of perfect love, and 
some were brought into possession of it." 

The following note I find at the foot of the page, 
I suppose by the biographer. Dr. Bangs : " What is 
this perfection ? It is not the perfection of God or 
angels, nor the perfection of Adam in paradise, but 
it is Christian perfection. It consists in the extirpa- 
tion of all sin, in having the powers and affections 
of the heart purified and the whole soul filled with 
divine love. 2nd. How is this blessing to be at- 



100 TJie Abiding Comforter. 

tained? As we are justified by faith, so are we 
sanctified by faith, ist. We are convinced of the 
need of it. 2nd. In general, there is a sweet dis- 
tress, but no condemnation or guilt. 3d. We must 
by faith receive the promises. Repentance disclaims 
all help of man. Faith lays claim to all the help in 
Christ. Repentance says: * I can do nothing.' Faith 
says: 'Through Christ Jesus strengthening me, I 
can do all things.' " 

It will be noticed that Mr. Garrettson failed to claim 
the witness of perfect love during the sermon on Matt. 
V. 8, although he felt great relief to his thirsting spirit. 
But perhaps I can supply the missing link in the chain 
of evidence to his profession of entire sanctification 
and the full witness of it. 

At a camp meeting held at Haverstraw, New York, 
on the circuit which I was then traveling, in 1825, 
Mr. Garrettson was at the meeting a day or two, 
when I heard him recite the following facts : *' At a 
camp-meeting in the South of which Bishop Asbury 
had the charge, he came up to me after the morning 
service, and putting his hand on my shoulder 
said : * Brother Garrettson, I want you to preach 
at three o'clock to-day on the subject of Chris- 
tian holiness.' ' Oh, bishop,' said I, ' don't request 
such a thing. I have not yet received the wit- 
ness of the grace of perfect love, and no man is 
fit to preach what by experience he has not received 
the witness of in himself But the bishop was in- 
flexible, and said : ' Preach it until you receive the 



Testimony of Experience. loi 

assurance in your own soul.' For an hour or two," 
continued Brother Garrettson, " I went alone into 
the woods, and on my knees struggled in earnest 
prayer for divine help. They were hours of deep 
anguish of soul ; but at last I found a text, and at 
the hour of service was in my place on the stand, 
and commenced the worship in the usual way. I 
first tried to show the necessity of this grace to all 
men, and while dwelling on this point I saw more 
clearly than ever before my own need of a clean 
heart. My soul broke out in strong desire for per- 
fect love. I next tried to show the nature of the 
work itself, and how it acted on and controlled the 
whole heart and life.^ While describing this I re- 
ceived the gracious blessing myself, and told all the 
people of the spiritual change that had come over 
me during the delivery of the sermon. My third 
point was its personal benefits; and I assure you I 
recited these readily and from a feeling heart. I 
testified in burning words what I then felt, and the 
audience were greatly moved, as they could clearly 
see how deeply I was affected myself" 

The old gentleman seemed full of joy while re- 
lating these facts, and urged all, but more especially 
the ministers present, never to allow themselves an 
hour's rest until they realized that the blood of 
Christ had cleansed them from all sin. 

How changed are the circumstances of the Church 
now! The fathers then urged all their junior breth- 
ren in the ministry to keep at the Master's feet, to 

9* 



102 TJie Abiding ComfoTier. 

seek with all the power of persevering prayer for 
the gift of the Holy Ghost to fully equip them for 
their great work of saving souls. Now leading 
officials, editors and presiding elders seem to doubt 
as to the sincerity of most of those who are strug- 
gling for a higher religious experience, and seem 
most to admire the course of such as say little or 
nothing about holiness. But a change will come; 
the work is God's, not ours, and therefore we must 
leave all to him, " who worketh all things after the 
counsel of his own will." Duty is ours ; results be- 
long to God, whose we are, and whom we try to 
serve. Let no one be alarmed at opposing views. 

REV. DR. OLIN, 

president of VVesleyan University, said to a friend in 
a letter: "I had difficulties respecting our own the- 
oretical views of the doctrine of perfect love. I even 
joined the conference with exceptions to it, and 
stated my objections before the whole body, but I 
was admitted. Years, however, passed without any 
modification of my opinions. But it pleased God to 
lead me into the truth. My health failed ; my offi- 
cial employment had to be abandoned. I lost my 
children, my wife died, and I was wandering over 
the world alone, with scarcely anything remaining 
but God. I lost my hold on all things else, and, as 
it were, became lost myself in God. My affections 
centred in him ; my will became absorbed in his. 
I sank, as it were, into the blessedness of perfect love, 



Testimony of Experience. 103 

and found in my own consciousness the reality of the 
doctrine which I had theoretically doubted." 

It may be that God will lead other doubters by 
similar providences into all truth, and yet make them 
able exponents of the doctrine of holiness. Let us 
hope and pray for this. 

BISHOP JANES. 

In a sermon preached at a camp-meeting near 
Morristown, New Jersey, August 18, 1867, the 
bishop says, " Oh, the purifying of the heart, the 
taking away all our depravity, this regulating our 
affections, purifying our motives and making holy 
our aspirations ! Oh what a change is this ! and 
God is faithful to do it. We have defined the 
cleansing from all unrighteousness to be the renew- 
ing of our souls by the Holy Ghost. The soul is 
restored — restored to the image and nature of God ; 
he is cleansed from all sin. 

" I ask my brethren who have some misgivings on 
this question about this instantaneous sanctification, 
What are you going to do with all the experience of 
the Church on this subject? It has been one of our 
exultant doctrines that religion was experimental, 
that religion was conscious. Well, now, what shall 
we do, when Fletcher and Benson, and Bramwell 
and David Stoner, and Drs. Fisk and Olin and Bangs, 
and tens of thousands of others, have testified, both 
in life and death, that they are conscious of the hour 
and place when God by the Holy Ghost cleansed 



104 ^/^^ Abiding ComfoHer. 

them from all unrighteousness ? What are you 
going to do with this testimony? You must be- 
lieve it, or you must doubt the witness of the Spirit 
in the case of justification. I desire most intensely 
that the Church, that the children of God, that be- 
lievers, should receive the fulfillment of the promise 
of the text in the plenitude of the divine blessing. 
Oh, be not satisfied, but continue seeking until you 
find cleansing from all unrighteousness, until there is 
no guilty stain, no unholy affection, no sinful desire, 
no wrong motive, lurking in your spirit, but all be 
cleansed away by the power of the Holy Ghost." 

The bishop recited his own experience at the 
Union camp-meeting at Round Lake in 1874, as 
follows : " Now, we are not what we ought to be in 
view of our doctrines and religious privileges — not 
what I think we shall be. I trust we shall become 
more spiritual, shall have more life and faith and 
power and progress. But let us give God praise for 
what he has done for us, and look to him for a more 
abundant effusion of his grace both upon his minis- 
ters and people. I want to say, also, that I am 
saved from sin through Christ, that I have an in- 
creasing nearness to God, and more intimate fellow- 
ship with him, a great sense of his gracious presence 
with me by day and by night ; and if I have a title 
to anything, it is to heaven ; if I have a hold on any- 
thing, it is on heaven. I know my probation is 
drawing to its close ; I have had great opportunities 
to serve my Lord and Master, and have a very sol- 



Testimony of Experience. 105 

emn account to render. I appreciate it more and 
more ; and yet, through God's great mercy in Jesus 
Christ, I meet it without fear, for I beheve that all 
my imperfections of service and devotion are forgiven 
for Christ's sake, and that he is the Lord my right- 
eousness, and that through his mercy I shall give up 
my account with joy and enter into the presence and 
beatitude of God, blessed be his name !" 

Perhaps it will make the matter more clear for me 
to transcribe from Mr. Wesley his own statement of 
the facts before referred to : ** I desired all those in 
London who made the same profession (of holiness) 
to come to me all together at the foundry that I 
might be thoroughly satisfied. When we met, first 
one of us and then the other asked them the most 
searching questions we could devise. They answered 
every one without hesitation and with the utmost 
simplicity, so that we were fully persuaded they did 
not deceive themselves. 

" During the next four or five years the number 
of those who professed holiness multiplied exceed- 
ingly, not only in London and Bristol, but in various 
parts of Ireland as well as England. Not trusting to 
the testimony of others, I carefully examined most 
of these myself, and in London alone I found six 
hundred and fifty-two members of our society who 
were exceedingly clear in their experience, and of whose 
testimony I could see no reason to doubt. I believe 
no year has passed since that time wherein God has 
not wrought the same work in many others. And 



io6 TJie Abiding Comforter. 

every one of these, after the most careful inquiry, I 
have not found one exception, either in Great Britain 
or Ireland, but has declared that this deliverance from 
sin was instantaneous, that the change was wrought 
in a moment." 

Drop the six hundred and bring the fifty-two 
before any court to bear testimony to any truth of 
which they were personally cognizant, and it would 
settle any question of fact before any court or jury. 
Similar facts of experience have been occurring for a 
century, and are still multiplying more than ever; 
carping, cold objectors cannot stop the blessed work. 
Let the friends of Jesus take courage, work and trust ; 
the work is God's, not theirs ; all results are with 
him. Brother Crane writes what he calls "a sad 
chapter ;" and were we to believe what he says, we 
should think the work of holiness came to a stand- 
still after the defection of Maxfield and Bell. But 
Mr. Wesley was full of good cheer : " No year has 
passed since that time wherein God hath not wrought 
the same blessing in many others." Like the ser- 
vant of Elisha, my good brother Crane is scared, and 
ready to cry out, " My Master, what shall we do ?" 
Our office now is to pray, " Lord, open his eyes," 
that he may see that there are more for us than 
against us. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

TESTIMONY OF EXPERIENCE.— Continued. 

" They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of 
the Lamb," 

THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH. 
BISHOP ENOCH GEORGE 

DIED in Staunton, Va., August 25, 1828, of a vi- 
olent attack of dysentery, at the house of Philip 
Hopkins. He wrote but little during life, his opportuni- 
ties of education having been limited, like most Meth- 
odist ministers of his day. What raised him to so high 
a position in the Church was his deep piety, fervency 
of spirit and very effective public ministry. Like 
Barnabas, "he was a good man, and full of the Holy 
Ghost and of faith." His theme was holiness in the 
pulpit and out of it, because he enjoyed it himself 
It burned in his soul like a fire that was unquench- 
able. All who heard him knew and felt that he held 
steady communion with God. To the praise of men 
and the honors of the world he appeared to be as 
dead as was the sainted Fletcher. In the midst of 
his sermon I have often seen him stop, and lifting his 
eyes toward heaven cry- out in a plaintive tone, " O 
Thou who lightest the lamps of glory, save the 

107 



Io8 The Abiding Comforter. 

Methodist Church from freezing up!" An "aniens" 
would follow it all over the congregation in the old 
Methodist style. The sympathy and feeling would 
be so intense that the house seemed filled with praise. 
Those were the good old days of Methodism, dear 
to recollection still with a few who yet remain, no 
more seen among us now, except occasionally at 
camp-meetings. But they are a luxury to the holy 
soul still ; and I somehow think they will yet come 
back again to the Church, and our children will a few 
years hence enjoy them as did the fathers. 

Bishop George used the word glory in a manner 
and with a tone a little different from all others. I 
heard an old brother, son of a Methodist preacher, 
in a meeting for the promotion of holiness last week, 
refer to the manner in which Bishop George used 
the word glory. It went through me like fire as it 
brought up fresh to recollection the days of former 
years. The bishop heard a member of the confer- 
ence preach one evening, and on leaving the church 
said to him : " You Northern men are always for 
system, but we Southern men love to wet the eyes 
of our congregations." Although I have heard him 
many times, I never knew him to preach one dry 
sermon. He seemed always filled with the Holy 
Ghost, and had power from on high. 

And how did he die ? His theme on the bed of 
death as in life was, " Glory, glory !" His physician 
coming in, he said : " I shall soon be in glory." To 
Brother Morrison, who stood near him, he said : 



Testimony of Experience. 109 

** Who are these ? Are they not all ministering 
spirits ?" and exclaimed, ** My dear departed wife 
has been with me, and I shall soon be with her in 
glory." On Friday morning, when Brother Morrison 
entered the room, he raised his arms and embraced 
him and Bros. Berkeley and Hopkins in turn, and 
said : '' Brethren, rejoice with me ; I am going to 
glory." This w^s repeated many times during the 
day. He said : " I am going to glory — that is 
enough." Toward the close of the day he said, clap^ 
ping his hands : " Shout glory to God ! The best 
of all is the Lord is with us." Being asked if he 
had any temporal business unsettled, he replied : 
** Nothing of any magnitude ;" and added, as though 
he had bid adieu to all earthly concerns, *' I am going 
to glory. I have been for many years trying to lead 
others to glory, and now thither I am going. * For 
me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' Jesus is 
sweet." * 

* Rev. L. R. Dunn having recently discovered a couple of letters 
from Bishop George and published them in the " Advocate of Holi- 
ness," I take pleasure in inserting them here. The first was written 
to a presiding elder in the Genesee Conference, and the latter to 
Rev. Daniel Ostrander, of the New York Conference. They serve 
to show how the former generation of Methodists were trained. 

" My Dear Brother : This may inform you that under the su- 
perintending care of a gracious Providence I have returned safely, 
and am now in Philadelphia, on my way to the South Carolina Con- 
ference. I have been writing to the presiding elders in the New 
England, New York and Genesee Conferences on one particular 
subject — that is, to request them as far as possible to introduce the 
doctrine, the spirit and practice of holiness among their preachers, 
10 



no The Abiding Comforter. 

BISHOP m'kENDREE, 

like his colleague Bishop George, wrote but little, 
and therefore we have not the materials from which 
to gather much concerning his daily trials or spirit- 
local and traveling, that the heavenly influence may spread its ener- 
gies among the membership ; for there can be little doubt but that 
the membership of our Church will unite with us in pursuing and 
realizing this precious pearl when they find us sincere in doctrine 
and example. I have found by experience as a presiding elder that 
this may be done with the most ease and success by introducing it 
into the Quarterly Conferences, and there obtaining the promise of 
all the official characters to commence the pursuit of it themselves by 
prayer and fasting for this particular blessing, and then invite and 
lead their different charges into the possession of this special and 
scriptural qualification for heaven. Permit me to assign one or two 
reasons for this request. And, first, we ought to do so for the sake 
of consistency. We read that the Methodists were raised up to be 
a holy people. The doctrine we preach and the discipline we ad- 
minister call upon us to be a holy people ; and while our practice is 
at war with our doctrine and discipline we shall always appear to 
disadvantage to men of reason and intelligence. But my final and 
conclusive reason is this — that we may go on ourselves, and lead 
our people in a safe and pleasant way to heaven, and also that we 
may see our fields of labor blooming with beauty, prosperity and 
glory; for we shall find a holy ministry, and a holy people will in 
the general be successful in gathering souls to Christ. I hope you 
will pray for your sincere friend in the kingdom and patience of 
Jesus, Enoch George." 

" Let us keep steady to our cardinal point, pleading for and pro- 
moting holiness of heart and life. I am pleased to find that my 
brethren in the ministry and membership in your conference are 
making such united efforts in favor of holiness. Go on, my brethren, 
in the name of Him who said, ' Be ye holy, for I am holy,' and you 
shall prosper. I remain your affectionate friend and brother in 
Christ, Enoch George." 



Testimony of Expeidence. ill 

ual victories ; but his whole Hfe was devoted to God 
and his Church, in the most extensive travels and 
unceasing toils, down to advanced age, for the 
trifling sum of one hundred dollars a year; and as 
his wants were therewith met, he was perfectly con- 
tent, and was never heard to ask for more. His 
appearance and manner in conference and in private 
life were the most apostolic of any of his colleagues. 
He was in the habit of reminding the preachers in 
all his speeches " that this life for us all was one of 
sacrifice for the benefit of others. We must not 
look to be rewarded in this world." All his teach- 
ing led to self-denial and holiness. 

Dr. T. F. Sargent, with whom he mostly lodged 
when in Philadelphia, and who knew him well, said 
to me that he was one of the most devoted and 
sweetest spirited of men. He knew him well for 
many years, and deemed him the most perfect model 
of a Christian bishop of his day. I knew him and 
was ordained to the office of elder by the imposition 
of his hands, but not having heard him recite his 
religious experience or read it anywhere cannot say 
more concerning it than I have, except that he was 
always esteemed one of the most self-denying and 
holy men. 

BISHOP ROBERTS 

is another of whose religious experience I personally 
know but little. But I do know that when he visited 
conference he was always in a very happy, joyful 
state of mind. Few men ever saw him sad or 



112 The Abiding Comforter. 

gloomy. My first appointment in this city was at 
St. George's charge, or rather circuit, with four 
churches to be supphed by four ministers. My first 
appointment to preach was at Salem church, then in 
Thirteenth street, on Sabbath afternoon. The house, 
of course, was full to hear the new minister, and it 
is said most of the official members of the circuit 
were there ; and to add to my embarrassment, among 
them sat Bishop Roberts. Being young and not 
accustomed to city congregations, the trial to me 
w^as considerable — a test of courage not at all de- 
sirable. I used all the power of persuasion in my 
possession to induce the bishop to take my place 
and preach to the people, but to no purpose. The 
bishop was kind, but on this point inexorable. He 
however agreed to go into the pulpit, pray for and 
do me all the service he could. He was alive, full 
of praise and abounded with hearty amens at inter- 
vals all the time I was preaching, and closed the 
service for me in a perfect burst of praise and Chris- 
tian joy fulness. He was deemed one of the most 
devout and holy of men. 

BISHOP EMORY, 

one of the later bishops, entered on his life-work as 
an itinerant Methodist minister in i8io. "March 
lo, 1812. To-day, while meeting class and press- 
ing the members to look for that 'perfect love which 
casteth out fear,' the Lord renewed my own witness 
of it, after having been some time in doubt about it. 



Testimony of Experience. 113 

This is the third time I have had the witness given. 
I beh'eve not declaring it and want of watchfulness 
were the chief causes of my being brought into 
doubts before. May I be wise and more faithful 
hereafter!" — " Life of Bishop Emory." 

He was an able defender of Methodism, both in 
its doctrines and institutions. He was one of our 
best-educated men, and sacrificed much of earthly 
prospect and promise in becoming a humble Metho- 
dist preacher on the large circuits of that period, 
with much labor, rough fare and poor pay. He was 
one of the most able and devotedly pious rnen. His 
life was brief, but very successful. 



BISHOP WAUGH 

is too near our day and too well known by the 
present generation to need many remarks from me 
here. We all know that it was his constant effort to 
raise and keep up the tone of deep piety among the 
younger preachers. It almost made him unhappy 
when he saw any tendency to worldliness and conse- 
quent loss of the spirit of deep devotion among the 
preachers. He also believed, and very correctly 
too, that if holy love and a warm devotion of spirit 
to Christ and his cause was ever lost among the 
ministers, the piety of the people would also deterio- 
rate in like proportion. He experienced what he 
steadily preached during all his late years — a holy 
and deep communion wiih God. 

10* H 



114 ^^'^^ Abiding CoinfoHer. 

BISHOP PECK 

has been a professor of the higher hfe of hoHness 
for very many years, as is well known to his friends, 
and has written a fine work on the subject; and I 
suppose he is still standing steadfastly in the 
apostle's doctrine on the solid rock. But as he is 
living, and able to tell the world what he feels and 
enjoys, there is the less necessity of my saying any 
more here. It is hoped that he will soon say to the 
world and the Church of which he has recently been 
made an overseer what his views and enjoyments 
are in this precious grace of perfect love for the 
benefit of younger officials in the Church. 

REV. LAWRE^XE m'C0:MBS, 

one of the fathers, and the steady friend and occa- 
sional presiding elder of the writer, was a most holy 
man. There have been few men of firmer faith, more 
steady trust in God, or more quiet and uncomplain- 
ing in the deepest domestic suffering. His children 
were stricken down until none were left, and then the 
companion of his early and more advanced life was 
laid away in the grave, yet not a word of complaint 
escaped his lips. When I attempted to condole with 
him in his great bereavement, his calm reply was, 
" Yes, but we must take things as they come." He 
was a mighty man of God in manhood's prime — a 
model for young ministers ; and after he was ren- 
dered helpless by paralysis, on visiting him I found 



Testimo7iy of Experience. 115 

him the same trusting, cheerful, hopeful, happy be- 
liever in Christ's power to save from all sin. 

REV. JOSEPH RUSLING, 

one of our most efficient ministers in the Philadelphia 
Conference for many years, experienced the grace of 
perfect love in a meeting at St. George's church in 
this city while in the prime of life. He was sitting 
in the chancel when the Holy Ghost came upon him 
and actually physically disabled him for the space of 
half an hour or more. He was perfectly silent both 
before and for some time after receiving the power 
from on high. He frequently related the circum- 
stance to me, and told me how it opened his mind to 
understand the Scriptures as never before, fulfilling 
the Saviour's promise — " He shall lead you into all 
truth." There is nothing, perhaps, which more fully 
marks this precious state of grace than its clearing 
up of the meaning and personally applying the 
words of divine revelation to the soul. This it did 
for him in such a way as to make it a special matter 
of remark to his friends in ordinary conversation. 

REV. JOSEPH LYBRAND. 

Oh what a man of God! What a sublime preacher 
was that holy leader of the faithful in the Church of 
Christ ! His sermons were so perfect and correctly 
delivered that good judges thought he wrote and 
committed them to memory, and then recited them 
to the congregations, deeming it quite impossible 



Ii6 TJie Abiding Coinfoi-ter. 

for any man to utter extemporaneously an hour's 
discourse so perfect in all respects. But they were 
mistaken. He spoke of what he knew, of course, 
and had deeply meditated before God, but without 
knowing with what words he was about to clothe 
his burning thoughts. He was born an orator; and 
being wholly sanctified by grace, he most. always 
awakened up a profound feeling in his congregations. 
When he traveled on a district in Xew Jersey and 
resided at New Brunswick, he was laid on his bed 
for nearly three months by an attack of inflammatory 
rheumatism, in which his sufferings were intense. 
He got out, however, in time to attend the confer- 
ence at Philadelphia in April, and what he said there 
in relation to his sufferings melted us all into tears 
of deep sympathy. But when he said, " I would 
willingly pass through just such another scene of 
suffering, commencing to-morrow, if it were the will 
of God," it fairly broke us down with emotion. His 
will was all lost in the will of God. He seemed to 
have no choice of his own. Holiness was his con- 
stant theme. On coming on a camp- ground and 
being invited to preach, he would ask, " Has any one 
preached on holiness since the meeting commenced?" 
And if answered in the negative, he would say it 
must be done, and then we enjoyed the privilege of 
hearing a beautiful, tender description of divine pro- 
vision and of human privilege. His name was like 
ointment poured forth in all places where he preached 
the word of life. He usually thinned all the other 



Testimony of Experience, 117 

churches and crowded his own ; and it was his divine 
baptism of love and holy fire that drew the people 
more than his natural eloquence. 

I will close these recitals of the experience of the 
fathers of our Church by saying to my junior breth- 
ren in the ministry of reconciliation, If you want to 
draw the people and fill your churches, or to make 
your work a pleasure instead of a burden, or to 
ensure the divine blessing on all your work in the 
pulpit and out of it, in the fam.ilies of your people, 
and have your own soul filled with joyous hope, seek 
what Christ promised his disciples — the gift of the 
Holy Ghost. 



CHAPTER IX. 

TESTIMOXY OF EXPERIEXCE IX OTHER COM- 
MLXIOXS. 

" Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he 
hath done for my soul." 

THIS higher Hfe of holy love in which the truly- 
consecrated live, " rejoice evermore, pray with- 
out ceasing, and in everything give thanks," etc., is 
not peculiar to any one denomination ; it belongs to 
all who choose to rise to their gospel privilege in 
Christ. And before I turn to other matters it may 
be well to record a few of the joyous testimonies of 
those who, though they have used a different lan- 
guage, were nevertheless " partakers of like precious 
faith." 

REV. ROBERT HALL, 

the most distinguished Baptist minister of his day, 
had witnessed a good profession for many years as a 
pastor prior to the death of his father. This, to- 
gether with a protracted and somewhat alarming per 
sonal affliction, produced a deep and abiding change 
in the tone of his piety as well as in his preaching 
After this his pulpit ministration was so warm and 
practical that it was offensive to some of his worldly 
hearers. At the close of a service one of his hearers 
lis 



Experience in other Communions. 119 

entered the vestry and said, " Mr. Hall, this preach- 
ing will not do for us ; it will only suit a congrega- 
tion of old women." " Do you mean my sermon or 
the doctrine?" "Your doctrine, sir." "Why is it 
that the doctrine is fit only for old women ?" " Be- 
cause it may suit the musings of old people tottering 
upon the brink of the grave, and who are eagerly 
seeking comfort." " Thank you, sir, for your con- 
cession. If it be true, it is important for every age." 
But men of God who personally feel the truth and 
power of what they teach cannot cease to declare 
it, whether men will hear or not. So the cold- 
hearted objector, with three or four others, left Mr. 
Hall's congregation. 

His consecration to God was most perfect. I here 
recite a part of it : "I disclaim all right to myself 
from henceforth, to my soul, my body, my time, my 
health, my reputation, my talents, or anything that 
belongs to me. I confess myself to be the property 
of the glorious Redeemer. I dedicate myself to him, 
to serve, love and trust him as my life and my salva- 
tion to my life's end. I call thee to witness, O God, 
the truth and reality of this surrender of all I have 
and all I am to thee, and earnestly implore the in- 
fluence of thy Spirit to enable me to stand steadfast 
in this covenant, as well as an interest in the blood 
of thy Son, that I may be forgiven in those instances 
— alas that such an idea may be possible ! — in which 
I may in any degree swerve from it." 

After reading this no one will deem it a matter of 



120 TJie Abiding Comforter. 

surprise that his ministry should be so successful or 
his death so full of praise. When nearing death, he 
said : " I have not one anxious thought either for 
life or death. AVhat I dread most are dark days. 
But I have had none." 

EDWARD PAYSON 

had been a Congregational minister of the most de- 
vout, laborious and spiritual kind for many years, 
md very much beloved by his people. Neither him- 
self, nor any other who knew him, had the least 
doubt of his piety or sense of acceptance with God 
during most of his active ministr}^ But after afflic- 
tion had fully given him to see the little value of 
earthly things, like Dr. Olin he sunk into God as 
never before. Then the work of grace was so per- 
fected as to almost open the world of glory to his 
surprised vision. 

He said : '' God deals strangely with his creatures 
to promote their happiness. Who would have thought 
that I must be reduced to this state, helpless and 
crippled, to experience the highest enjoyment? 
You ought to feel happy — all ought to feel happy 
who come here, for they are within a few steps of 
heaven." 

To a clergyman : " Oh, if ministers only saw the 
inconceivable glory that is before them, and the 
preciousness of Christ, they would not be able to re- 
frain from going about leaping and clapping their 
hands for joy! 



Experience in other Comiminions. 121 

" When I used to read Bunyan's description of the 
land of Beulah, where the sun shines and the birds 
sing day and night, I used to doubt whether there 
was such a place ; but now my own experience has 
convinced me of it, and it infinitely transcends all 
my previous conceptions. 

" I think the happiness I enjoy is similar to that 
enjoyed by glorified spirits before the resurrection." 

In a letter to his sister he says : " Were I to adopt 
the figurative language of Bunyan, I might date this 
letter from the land of Beulah, of which I have been 
for some weeks a happy inhabitant. The celes- 
tial city is full in my view. Its glories beam upon 
me, its odors are wafted to me, its sounds strike 
upon my ears, and its spirit is breathed into my 
heart. I seem to float like an insect in the beams 
of the sun, exulting yet almost trembling, while I 
gaze on this excessive brightness, and wondering 
with unutterable wonder why God should deign 
thus to shine upon a sinful worm. Oh, my sister, 
my sister! could you but know what awaits the 
Christian, could you only know so much as I know, 
you could not refrain from rejoicing, and even leap- 
ing for joy !" 

PRESIDENT EDWARDS 

gives us the reason for that divine love for which he 
was afterward so distinguished. One day, when 
walking for meditation and prayer, I had a view, that 
|for me was extraordinary, of the glory of the Son of 
God as Mediator between God and man, and his 
11 



122 The Abiding Comforter. 

wonderful, great, full and pure grace and love and 
meek and gentle condescension. This grace, that 
appeared so calm and sweet, appeared also great 
above the heavens ; the person of Christ appeared 
also ineffably excellent with an excellency great 
enough to swallow up all thought and conception, 
which continued, as near as I can judge, about an 
hour, which kept me the greater part of the time in 
a flood of tears, weeping aloud. I had an ardency 
of soul to be — what I know not otherwise how to ex- 
press — emptied and annihilated, to lie in the dust and 
to be filled with Christ alone, to love him with a holy 
and pure love, to trust in him, to live upon him and 
to be perfectly sanctified and made pure with a di- 
vine and heavenly purity." 

This to many may seem strange and to some 
fanatical, but not to such as have wrestled with the 
angel of the covenant like Jacob, and have come 
away from the place of full consecration prevailing 
Israelites. As President Mahan says, " When we 
have received the Holy Ghost after we have be- 
lieved," we comprehend what the Saviour meant 
when he said, " And this is life eternal, that we 
might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus 
Christ, whom thou hast sent ;" what God means 
when he says, ** I will dwell in them and walk in 
them." You have read, reader, of the communion 
of the Holy Ghost. Here it is : '' Christ in you the 
hope of glory, we will come to him and make our 
abode with him, fellowship with the Father and 



Experience in other Communions. 123 

with his Son, Jesus Christ. The mission of the 
Spirit is to bring the soul into direct and immediate 
intercommunion and fellowship with God ; to be 
directly conscious of him as an immediate personal 
presence, encircling us with his own infinity of love, 
showing us his glory, his deep sympathy with all 
our joys and sorrows, cares and interests; to be con- 
scious when we pray that we are speaking to God, 
' face to face, as a man speaketh to his friend,' and 
that his ear is bent tenderly toward us in all our con- 
fessions, giving of thanks and petitions, and teaches 
us the divine lesson of deep content in every allot- 
ment of Providence." 

A sense of pardon of sin, though a great grace, 
does not do this for any believers, but the gift of the 
Holy Ghost can and does do all this. Christians 
are not straitened in privilege, but in their own faith 
and full consecration. The faith of all the truly de- 
voted in all denominations is now looking for the 
Church to rise to such privileges and divine commu- 
nion. The glory of Christ's kingdom begins to 
dawn already on the Church. The prospect even 
now gives a luxurious faith to all who are waiting 
for the fulfillment of the promise, '' The earth shall 
be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters 
cover the sea." 

Every man in all the ages on whom God has laid 
important and difficult duties has been divinely fitted 
for his work by special illumination. It was so with 
Elijah, and his successor craved as his only request 



124 T^^^^ Abiding Comforter. 

that a double portion of that divine gift might rest 
upon him also to fit him to occupy his place. There 
can be no doubt that Luther received more than 
pardon and regeneration when he suddenly heard in 
his inmost soul, like a voice of thunder, '* The just 
shall live by faith." This brought him to his feet in 
more than a physical sense. He then became not 
only a new man, but he says : " From that hour I 
saw the precious and Holy Scriptures with new 
eyes" — almost the same language used by Rev. Mr. 
Rusling, before referred to, after the Holy Ghost came 
upon him in his entire cleansing. And the remark- 
able courage and perfect fearlessness which charac- 
terized his entire after career show that he received a 
portion of the same ** power from on high" which dis- 
tinguished the disciples of our Lord after the day of 
Pentecost. Perfect love alone is capable of casting 
out all fear, for " he that feareth is not made perfect 
in love." 

Nor can any one read the story of the heroic John 
Knox without being compelled to admit that similar 
divine power rested on him, enabling him to be the 
daring, fearless man he was in that gloomy period. 
The Scottish queen and all her nobles trembled be- 
fore him, and could scarcely look him in the face. 
Such heroism is not natural, but divinely conferred 
to meet the emergency. God fits his workmen for 
the special department of labor to which he calls 
them. " Burning and shining lights " were occasion- 
ally seen all through the Dark Ages as well as since 



Experience in other Coimnitnions. 125 

the Reformation. He does not leave himself with- 
out witnesses of his power to "' save unto the utter- 
most" in any age of the Church, nor will he to the 
end of the world. Great men and heroes are immor- 
talized by monuments of marble, but Christ's mem- 
ory is kept up by living epistles, " read and known 
of all men." Holy men are his letters to churches, 
to all men and all nations, Christ's mind is written 
to every shop, or place of trade, where a man is 
employed who carries the Saviour with him ; and a 
minister without Christ within cannot truly witness 
for him, though ever so learned or eloquent. 

MR. CARPENTER. 

I remember a Mr. Carpenter, a layman in the Pres- 
byterian Church in Newark, N. J., who did wonders 
for God and his cause during the last ten years of 
his life. He was a poor man of quite limited educa- 
tion as well as influence in society — not distinguished 
by any remarkable trait of character from any others 
who attended the same place of worship. Without 
apparent cause, he became impressed with a con- 
scious want of something, he perhaps hardly knew 
what — had no settled confidence in God that yielded 
him a satisfactory comfort. Being dissatisfied with 
himself, and having no assured hope, he resolved on 
a closer walk with God, and earnestly set his heart 
on a more satisfying religious condition. All his 
reading, conversation and devotion was turned in 
that direction. The intensity of desire, of course, 
11 * 



126 The Abidmg Comforter. 

increased steadily until his whole soul "cried out for 
the living God." His consecration of body, soul, 
time and talents, with all his earthly interests, at last 
became perfect and lacked nothing. Then, as in all 
such cases, the Spirit came upon him fully, and then 
commenced his labor for Christ, whom he supremely 
loved. To the day of his death he staggered not at 
the promises of God, but " counted all things but 
loss for Christ," and devoted all his energies to doing 
good. His power both with God and men soon 
attracted the attention of those who best knew him, 
and they promised to meet all his own wants as well 
as those of his family, and told him to devote all his 
time to the work of doing good. 

He came up through Morris county in 1828, -and 
had appointments made to speak in different neigh- 
borhoods in the Presbyterian churches. Large and 
deeply interested crowds usually came together on 
week-day afternoons to hear him recite the dealings 
of God with his own heart and soul. He loved to 
tell the story in the ears of all men of what God had 
done for him and what he would do for them if they 
surrendered their all into his hands, A man must be 
fully the Lord's before he has a right to expect the 
fulfillment of his promises to him and in him, I hap- 
pened to be out of town, attending a funeral, I think, 
the afternoon he came to Morristown and spoke in 
the Presbyterian church. This I exceedingly re- 
gretted. He declined to occupy the pulpit, but stood 
in front of it, and spoke for nearly an hour, with mar- 



Experience in other Communions. 127 

velous effect on all who heard him. I inquired of 
Rev. Albert Barnes, then pastor of the church there, 
what was the secret of his great power, as I had 
heard that the people were deeply impressed and 
there were but few dry eyes in the congregation. 
His reply was, '* There is a mystery about the man 
most remarkable. Every word he said seemed to 
take hold of the hearts and souls of the people from 
the first sentence to the last that he uttered." It 
consisted principally in his own personal experience, 
together with the privilege of all to receive the 
precious grace and have steady communion with 
Christ. To an intimate friend just before his death 
he stated that for the last ten years he had walked 
continuously in the cloudless light of the divine 
countenance, that the doctrine of entire sanctification 
was true, that he had been in that happy condition 
for some years, and that this doctrine would ere long 
become a leading theme in all the churches. His 
dying prediction is now being fulfilled on a wide 
scale both in Europe and America. 

MADE PERFECT THROUGH SUFFERING. 

In the time of a general falling away from the 
true religion in Israel because it was persecuted, and 
therefore unpopular, God " reserved to himself seven 
thousand " among that people who were made of a 
sterner material, and did not bow the knee to Baal. 
They were wholly unknown even to the prophet 
Elijah, as well as to most other men among whom 



128 The Abiding Comforter. 

they had hved. But God knew them as his wit- 
nesses, and awaited the proper time to bring them to 
the front to aid in carrying on his work. With many 
leading minds in all the Churches now deep piety, 
holy communion with God and a steady life of faith 
are almost forgotten. But they are good, well-in- 
tentioned men, seeking the good of the Church, and 
trying to widen its popular influence by what they 
deem the best means within their reach. Each of us 
is apt to think his own ideas of what is true and 
right are nearest to the divine standard ; but how 
easy it is, by following a regular course of religious 
duties, to lose the track and get into a wilderness 
state as to joyous, felt piety, the history of the 
Church in all ages fully shows. 

My own experience in the ministry for half a 
century leads me to the conclusion that the best and 
most satisfactory piety — that which yields the richest 
comfort to its possessor — is found among those who 
are least known to the world. The most "joyful in 
the God of their salvation " that I have ever known 
are, like some flowers, 

" BoiTi to blush unseen 
And waste their fragrance on the desert air." 

The highest joys of divine communion are usually 
realized by the afflicted ones who pass through a 
deep and sorrowful course of discipline. ** Whom 
the Lord loveth he chasteneth." What words of 
sweet consolation are these to all sufferers ! It seems 



Experience in other Communions. 129 

strange, as Mr. Payson says, but it is nevertheless 
true in all the world. 

A HUMBLE LADY RICH IN FAITH. 

A few years since, in the lower part of this city, 
in my pastoral visitations, far up an alley, in an old 
frame tenement, I found the wreck of what was once 
a very beautiful young lady. She had stood before 
me thirty-five years previous, and was married to the 
youth whom she loved ; but death had long since 
separated them, leaving her alone with several chil- 
dren who were now all grown up. She was the most 
pitiable object that I ever beheld. Her lower limbs 
were drawn up and distorted. Her arms and fingers 
were equally out of their natural shape and position. 
Perfectly helpless, not able even to feed herself or 
change her position in the bed, and had not been for 
ten years, she was waited upon by a faithful daughter. 
On entering her room, I inquired how long she had 
been such a sufferer. She replied : '' The rheumatic 
suffering commenced twenty years since, but I have 
been about as I am now for only ten or twelve 
years." 

" How much you must have suffered during those 
years ! Death certainly would be a relief, and I sup- 
pose you desire it very much." 

** Oh no," she replied ; " I would not wish it other- 
wise. I would not turn my hand to change anything. 
Christ is everything to me, and he keeps me as happy 
as I can well be on this side of heaven. I have not 

I 



130 The Abiding Comforter. 

had one pain too many. All is right that Christ 
does, and I am perfectly content; and you know 
that is great gain." 

I was instructed, humbled into the dust, by wit- 
nessing a resignation to which I was a stranger. I 
had believed it possible, and preached it as a privilege, 
but, like Mr. Wesley, had taught a possibility, a height 
of divine communion, which I had not reached. But 
now I saw it exemplified in a humble sufferer as 
never before. I was resting in Christ as a full Sa- 
viour, but had not reached that third heaven which 
she had gained, by the ministry of suffering. Oh, 
the mystery and ministry of pain, loss and suffering ! 

No lady of wealth and ease have I ever seen so 
perfectly happy as was that woman in her penury 
and deep affliction. Not a murmur or complaint es- 
caped her lips. All was gratitude and praise. After 
a few more weeks had passed, it was enough ; Christ 
came and took her sweetly to himself She was 
"made perfect through suffering." This is the sort of 
discipline we sometimes need to fully lead us to the 
open Fountain where we may wash and be clean.* 

'^ And this purifying process is constantly going on as a steady 
wail of affliction heard throughout human society. Only last week 
I had occasion to visit a minister who had just passed through a very 
dangerous surgical operation. Almost his first remark as I entered 
the room was : " I have had many precious manifestations of divine 
love to my heart all along in life, but never did Christ so sweetly re- 
veal himself to me in such fullness of joy as during the painful surgi- 
cal operation. All other revelations of joyfulness and triumph of 
spirit were small compared to it." Like Moses, he stood on Pisgah, 



Experience in other Comiminions. 131 

"Made perfect through sufifering!" The highest 
degrees of divine communion, it seems to me, are 
only vouchsafed to such as drink deeply of the cup 
of bodily or mental anguish. If you ask me why 
this is so, my best reply perhaps would be, I cannot 
tell. Charles Wesley has touched the point, per- 
chance, as near as it can be done in his " Wrestling 
Jacob :" 

" What though my shrinking flesh complain, 
And murmur to contend so long ? 
I rise superior to my pain ; 

When I am weak, then am I strong; 
And when my all of strength shall fail, 
:* I shall with the God-man prevail." 

Still, there is a mystery in suffering. Crucifixion 
is a hard death, yet St. Paul said he was crucified. 
We are all bound to believe, if an easier method 
would have answered the purpose, the loving Saviour 
would have used it in his case. So it may have 
been with the lady whose brief history I have given. 
The sufferings of Moses resulted in his being the 
meekest of men, with the loftiest of privileges, talk- 
ing face to face with God. You pray to be made 
holy. It is a most desirable condition to be in ; but 
the grace of perfect love comes not by wishing or 
the usual forms of prayer. Christ must reign, if at 

looking over into the goodly land, his spirit already communing with 
departed loved ones, and ready for its glorious flight to join them in 
their immortal songs. But he had been wholly sanctified before, and 
was then living a "life of faith on the Son of God." 



132 The Abiding Comforter. 

all, in a heart emptied of worldliness, self-seeking 
and ambition. It comes by faith ; but " how can ye 
believe while ye seek honor (titles, official positions 
of prominence) one of another, and seek not the 
honor which cometh from God only ?"' Afflictions 
take all desires for these trifles away. Nothing else 
so fully shows their vanity. 



CHAPTER X. 

TESTIMONY OF EXPERIENCE. 

■" And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firma- 
ment ; and they that tarn many to righteousness as the stars for ever 
and ever." 

BISHOP LEONIDAS L. HAMLINE, D. D., 

in 1842 became deeply affected in view of his need 
of heart purity. It was no dream that then drew his 
attention to the want of the entire sanctification of 
his nature. ReaHties which crowded upon him in 
fearful array and burdened his soul in a manner 
indescribable impelled him to seek the Saviour's full 
image. It commenced in the closet. Its earliest 
stage was a clear discovery, aided by circumstances 
extremely reproving, of his lukewarmness. He was 
brought to feel that, though born again, he had lost 
much of his confidence, and did not enter fully into 
communion with God. A sense of this want became 
very deep and oppressive. None but He who sees 
in secret can tell the number of ministers in all the 
churches who feel and groan under this sense of 
want — soul want. But pride of name and position 
prevents their seeking a fuller baptism of the Spirit. 
This would put a new song in their mouths, and 
make them flames of holy fire in their congregations, 
12 133 



134 ^^^ Abiding Comfoiier. 

but they fear the reproach of the cross. They have 
its honors and emoluments now, which they shrink 
from sacrificing. 

" On the 22d of March, 1842, at the house of Mr. 
Downey, New Albany, Indiana, Mr. Hamline re- 
ceived the holy baptism so long and so earnestly 
sought. Now bowed before the Lord, he had strength 
given him from above to take hold on God with an 
unyielding grasp." A deep fervor to which he was 
before a stranger was now kindled in his bosom. 
Immortal joys filled and overflowed his soul. Like 
the sainted Payson, he dwelt in the land of Beulah, 
and discerned the glories of his future home. This 
state is known to some as the " assurance of hope,'" 
to others as " perfect love, holiness or entire sancti- 
fication " — "the very God of peace sanctify you 
wholly," or entirely — and others the gift of the 
Holy Ghost as a Comforter. This last is in precise 
accordance with the phraseology employed by the 
first Christian church in the Acts of the Apostles. 
Either conveys the sense intended, and indicates 
what God is willing and has promised to do for all 
believers. Dr. Hamline was led to hunger for this 
grace by contemplating the image of Christ, as the 
single object of ardent desire to be Christlike, to 
possess all the mind that was in Christ, seemed to 
him to comprehend all good. 

And after he had gained that point the great deep 
of God's love seemed to swallow him up. He felt it 
not only outwardly, but inwardly. It seemed to 



Testimony of Experience. 135 

press upon his whole being, and to diffuse all through 
him a holy, sin-consuming flame. Yet like the 
sainted Fletcher, he, by refraining from bearing a full 
testimony, lost the evidence from his own soul. His 
own words were : *' For some eighteen months I was 
like Samson shorn, because I did not fully confess 
God's goodness toward me. But at the session of 
the Ohio Annual Conference in Chillicothe, Sep- 
tember, 1843, I made confession unto salvation." 

From his conversion he had almost wholly sepa- 
rated himself from the world in all public demon- 
strations, celebrations of patriotism, etc., in which he 
had before delighted to participate as orator of the 
day ; but now devotion was the element in which 
he lived. He sought retirement ; Jesus was the life 
of his soul and the theme of his tongue. The cross 
filled his sermons, his exhortations and his con- 
versation. 

After he was elected to the episcopacy he wrote 
thus to his wife : *' My soul is the subject of a most 
gracious work indeed. I feel stronger and stronger. 
Little things that used a year ago to disturb my 
peace now leave all the depth of my soul calm. The 
surface only feels the winds which blow upon it. I 
can say boldly that God is graciously finishing his 
work. Oh how blessed it is to wait and feel him carry 
it on ! We are blessed indeed." 

When his health failed, he retired from his service 
as a bishop and resigned his high office, refusing to 
retain it or any of its honors or emoluments, desiring 



136 Tlic Abiding Comforter. 

to carry out the true idea of our Church that the 
episcopacy is only an office, not an order in the 
Christian ministry. The old notion, " Once a bishop 
always a bishop," he did not admit, and desired by 
his example to oppose and destroy, as far as he per- 
sonally or his own Church was concerned. And for 
it the Church will yet thank him in louder tones 
than it has as yet done. He has set an example to 
all ministers of a life of deep, joyous piety and burn- 
ing love, as well as one of self-abnegation, counting 
all his gains of popular standing as dross for Christ 
and the future good of his Church. 

WHAT THIS TEACHES. 

That holiness, the gift of the Holy Ghost, destroys 
all undue selfishness. The apostles had this strongly 
developed while under the eye of the Master, for 
which he often reproved them. But when the Spirit 
came upon them at Pentecost, this remnant of fallen 
nature was swept away, and they ever after cared 
more for others than for themselves. This is the 
stone of stumbling and rock of offence with many 
ministers in all the Churches now. The world, 
with keen and practiced eye, readily perceives it in 
our struggles for place, influence, name and high 
position among our compeers. " How can ye be- 
lieve which receive honor one of another, and seek 
not the honor that cometh from God only ?" Faith 
to such is quite impossible, though many of us fail 
to see it, and labor to induce faith, to fully believe 



Testimony of Experience. 137 

on the Son of God and realize a rich experience, 
when it is utterly impossible until the eye is singly 
fixed on God and self is lost sight of, being absorbed 
in trying to serve and please him, and him only. 
Here is the great offence of the cross in this day 
that hinders the work of God in most, if not all, the 
churches of our land. Self is too great ; the way of 
holiness, though admired, is too narrow, " and few 
there be that find it." This answers the captious 
question, Why '' only a few of either our ministers 
or people profess holiness." Critics might go much 
farther and say that many who started in the Spirit, 
like '* the foolish Galatians not only ended in the 
flesh," but turned utterly away to the spirit of the 
world and its beggarly elements. Thousands back- 
slide utterly because they do not forget " the things 
that are behind and press toward the mark of their 
high calling in Christ Jesus," "perfecting holiness in 
the fear of God." My way all through life has been 
lined on either side with the spiritually dying and 
the dead, who, failing to perceiv^e the necessity of a 
higher Christian life, or, if they saw it, failing to seek 
it at once, have fallen into temptations and secret or 
open sin, and at last denied " the Lord that bought 
them." 

The life of Christ must be seen in the Church, or 
it will fail to do its appropriate work in saving the 
world from its increasing vices. No system of 
police, courts, penalties and prisons has or ever can 
reform society. This has been tried long enough, 
12* 



138 liie Abiding Comforter. 

one would think, to convince all men of its truth. 
But the gospel and Christ have done it, and can do it, 
everywhere. But the average piety of the Church, 
as it now exists in all denominations, is too low and 
too feeble to affect the masses. Hence we preach 
holiness, a piety that first of all subdues self, that sets 
men on a loftier plane, filling their hearts with glad- 
ness and their lips with praise. When all believers 
come to realize this, the world will feel its power. 

REV. WILBUR FISK, D. D. 

While laboring in Charlestown, Mass., in 18 19, he 
attended a camp-meeting at Wellfleet, on Cape Cod, 
in that State. This meeting was signalized by re- 
markable displays of divine power in the awakening 
of sinners and the sanctification of believers. Mr. 
Fisk had many exercises of mind on the subject of 
Christian perfection, but was not, when he went to 
the meeting, under any special concern about it. But 
while there his attention was strongly attracted to 
the subject, especially under a sermon by the Rev. 
Timothy Merritt on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. 
He became deeply sensible of his want of full con- 
formity to the Christian standard ; he sought earn- 
estly unto God through the blood of the atoning 
sacrifice, and in the course of the meeting he obtained 
that " perfect love that casteth out fear." His religious 
emotions (what a minister must have if successful) 
now acquired a wonderful intensity and elevation. 
One who was present at the time says : " His Ian- 



Testimony of Experience. 139 

guage and whole appearance had something in them 
more than human, most manifestly indicating that 
his soul then glowed with ardors of love nearly allied 
to those of angels. The next morning he preached 
on growth in grace, when the impression made upon 
the audience was deep, awful, glorious. His beauti- 
ful classic style, vivified with fire from heaven's own 
altar, never appeared to better advantage. He poured 
forth a full soul in ' thoughts that breathe and words 
that burn.' " 

His views of the divine Being, especially of the 
power, glory and fullness of Christ, were almost 
overwhelming. He felt such a horror of sin, and 
had so great an apprehension of the purity of the 
divine law, that he " almost," to use his own strong 
language, " feared to set his foot on the ground lest 
he should do wrong." Previously to this he, had 
often doubted not only his interest in Christ, but the 
truth of the Christian religion — afterward, never. 
From this time he was often heard to say that he 
never laid his head upon his pillow without feeling 
that if he never waked in this world all would be 
well. Prior to this he was often subject to despond- 
ing, gloomy seasons. " We heard him say long after- 
ward that he knew no gloomy hours ; his mind was 
always serene and happy." 

Writing to his sister some time after, he says : *^ I 
have found, my dear sister, much consolation of late 
in that religion which I profess. God has been 
pleased to brighten my evidence of acceptance with 



140 The Abiding Comforter. 

him. I have been enabled to say I have not a doubt; 
I feel it so. I have dedicated myself anew to the 
Lord and to his ministry. Though I love you, my 
sister, and my dear parents, if possible better than 
ever, yet I have felt such a complete devotedness to 
the work in which I am engaged that those ties 
which have hitherto given me pain are loosed. Most 
willingly do I devote all to God and rejoice in the 
service of such a Master. I look back upon my past 
life, upon my follies and my wanderings, and wonder 
at the mercy that has spared me and at that Provi- 
dence that has protected me. Oh, that I could love 
this Saviour more and serve him better!" 

THE LESSON HERE LEARNED. 

All these deep experiences in holy love and joy, 
this 'apostolic fullness, were realized by him before 
he was thirty years old and prior to his marriage. It 
was this great change, this searching, cleansing power 
of the Holy Ghost, that brought him into prominence 
and made his after history so brilliant and command- 
ing. It did the same for John Summerfield. Having 
heard them both preach several times to overflowing 
congregations, and witnessed their power to chain 
the attention and melt the hearts of the people, one 
can easily perceive the secret of their power was in 
the state of their own hearts at the time. They 
sweetly communed with God themselves, and all 
who heard them felt it. 

In these days it is well known that many ministers 



Testimo7ty of Experience. 141 

and high officials in the churches who aim to be 
attractive and popular are afraid to identify them- 
selves with the question of holiness lest it may 
injure their influence. That which was the principal 
element of popular power with the fathers is by some 
now feared as a brake on the wheels, which retards 
rather than accelerates the onward motion. It was 
said, in the time of Christ's early ministry, " Who 
among the rulers have believed on him ?" Nearly 
the same language is used now in relation to the 
true and only equipment for usefulness — " but few of 
the princes in our Israel profess holiness." 

I have thus tried to show the true state of facts 
in the history of our Church touching the question 
of holiness, both as to belief and profession. It is a 
little painful to be compelled to defend the doctrine 
and experience of Methodism against the misrepre- 
sentation of one of its own officers. This was not 
my purpose, however, in the outset, but rather, in 
a brief form, to set before our people the real facts 
in the case, both as to doctrinal views and experience 
which I feared might become beclouded to the eyes 
of our younger members if it was not done by some 
one. Allow a brother and fellow-laborer in the 
" kingdom and patience of Christ," who stands by 
the river waiting for the call of the Master to cross 
over and join the victorious company on the other 
side, to say to all hungering and thirsting ones, as 
well as to the more experienced, Hold on to your 



142 The Abiding Comforte7\ 

profession without wavering. Time and Providence 
will vindicate your course ; leave the matter to God, 
the Judge of all. 

Keep up the meetings for the promotion of holi- 
ness ; relax not a particle of effort or zeal to spread 
the experience of perfect love, as Wesley did to the 
end of a long life. Preach, write, publish, the whole 
truth as it is in Jesus, but do not argue with any, as 
that will darken your own souls. Keep bright and 
sweet, kind and loving, and abundant in labors ; let 
God do the rest. My heart has ached often for many 
of my young brethren in the ministry. They are 
sincere, ardently desire to see their churches prosper, 
holding long extra meetings and laboring hard, and, 
after all, are only partially successful. Why it is so 
they cannot tell. Had they received the baptism 
of fire, as did Dr. Fisk and Bishop Hamline, they 
could have succeeded better with one half the labor 
or anxiety. They do not see it, however, and per- 
haps will not. 



CHAPTER XI. 

WHY MANY FAIL TO SEEK HOLINESS. 

" How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and 
seek not the honor that cometh from God only ?" 

THE recent extensive labors of a few good men 
to promote holiness in the Church, as is well 
known, have met with opposition. This is by no means 
strange or unusual, as no work of reformation has 
ever escaped it. The excellent Mrs. Palmer of New 
York took the lead in holding meetings and pub- 
lishing books and periodicals on the subject, and 
many others who caught her spirit have aided in 
the good work for a number of years. Then followed 
the national camp-meetings, which, having been 
held in many parts of our country, have awakened 
professors of all denominations of Christians to 
see the need of a more satisfactory experience as 
well as a more active piety. Why and wherefore 
comes opposition, or even indifference ? 

EDUCATIONAL DIFFERENCES. 

All men are influenced by education. It creates 
preferences, tastes and prejudices. Most differences 
on religious questions have their origin here. A 

143 



144 T^^^^ Abiding Comforter. 

minister, educated in a college, in literary matters 
merely, and where little may be said or taught of 
religion, will naturally copy the ideas, modes of 
thought and the very expressions of his instructors. 
This is not unnatural, and indeed it would be strange 
if otherwise. The student is expected to attend the 
daily religious devotions of the institution, and what 
he there hears for consecutive years usually cleaves 
to and influences him through after life. His doc- 
trinal belief, as well as the forms of expression used 
in speaking of divine things, will be influenced by 
the years he spent as an undergraduate. 

Examples of this could be furnished to almost 
any extent. If, in the providence of God, such a 
one should become a minister in another denomi- 
nation, holding different views from those held by 
his early instructors, it would not be strange if he 
should differ in doctrinal views from the majority of 
his brethren, or even the Church in which he was a 
minister. This is doubtless one cause of variety of 
opinions in our own Church, if not of opposition to 
the recent movement to promote holiness. It being 
a peculiar doctrine of Methodism, those not trained 
in Methodist schools, families or churches, in joining 
a conference, profess to agree with us in all points 
at the time, and do it honestly ; but when circum- 
stances bring our denominational peculiarities to the 
front, these brethren are found to differ in some 
important particulars. Cases of the kind have 
occurred in all our history. Dr. Stephen Olin, whose 



Why many Fail to seek Holiness. 145 

education had not been in accordance with Wesleyan 
ideas on this point, openly confessed his dissent 
before the conference, but he was nevertheless re- 
ceived into the body. He, however, afterward re- 
ceived the " power from on high," and became one 
of its most able advocates. 

WANT OF DEEP EXPERIENCE, 

Here lies the principal difficulty. " If any man 
do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it 
be of God." Nor can he know the truth on this 
vital and vitalizing experience in any other way. 
Appetite or its absence gives a very different appear- 
ance to food set before us on the table ; " the full 
soul loatheth the honeycomb, but to the hungry soul 
every bitter thing is sweet." It is in the higher life 
precisely as in the lower. The careless, unawakened 
worldling sees no beauty, nothing to attract him, in 
the pardon or purity which the gospel offers him. 
But the awakened one hungers for God more than 
for his daily bread. " The natural man understandeth 
not the things of the Spirit, they are foolishness 
unto him, neither can he know them, because they 
are spiritually discerned." Nevertheless, he deems 
himself a good judge of piety because intelligent 
in other matters. There are, no doubt, very many 
professors now in all the churches who were either 
never spiritually changed or have utterly lost the 
Spirit of Christ, and are in what Mr. Wesley calls a 
wilderness state : " If any man have not the Spirit of 
13 K 



146 The Abiding Comforter. 

Christ, he is none of his." The force of will, the 
demands of conscience, the fear of God and the 
habits of early life keep them in the Church ; but 
there is no love, no joy in God, no special attrac- 
tion toward the truly pious, nor delight in prayer 
and praise. To them all worship is mechanical and 
tasteless, even though it be performed regularly and 
according to the approved mode. As a consequence, 
they stand aloof from and dislike " the holiness 
party," as some choose to term them, or " have holi- 
ness on the brain," as others say. 

Another class are devoted churchmen who keep 
up all religious duties, but call the more devoted 
" men of one idea," who preach, pray and speak 
much of perfect love. For various reasons they op- 
pose the whole movement- —say it creates distinctions 
between ministers who appear to be equally good 
and worthy men ; it arrogates to itself more faith 
and love than other professors in the same commun- 
ion, and to which it has no right or claim. The idea 
of salvation by a simple act of faith in a moment of 
time has always been hard to receive by many whom 
we love to honor in the Church for their excellencies 
as men, as well as for their standing as churchmen ; 
though, with all our admiration of their character and 
usefulness, we dare not make a lie about them, and 
say they are in the best path and " living a life of 
faith on the Son of God." There is "a more excel- 
lent way " of holding steady communion with the 
Father and the Son — by the power and presence of 



Why many Fail to seek Holiness. 147 

the Holy Ghost, as in the first Christian Church — 
and it is promised to all believers to the end of time. 
Many good men have not " received the Holy Ghost 
since they believed." In self-justification some teach 
that it is not necessary, as growth in what believers 
now have is all that is needed or required. 

FALLACIES HINDER SOME. 

The strong argument used in defence by most men 
of this class is the parable of our Lord in the fourth 
chapter of Mark. It is not recorded by either of 
the other evangelists. '' And he said : So is the 
kingdom of God as if a man should cast seed into 
the ground ; and should sleep and rise night and 
day ; and the seed should spring and grow up, he 
knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth 
fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear ; after 
that the full corn in the ear." Some men in our own 
Church — the Church of Wesley, Benson and Asbury, 
who taught that holiness was by simple faith in 
Christ — have recently used this parable of our Lord 
to prove that all holiness is by development, and not 
by faith. Our Lord in the parable certainly intended 
to teach no such thing. He evidently meant to en- 
courage his disciples in their work — to sow the seed, 
and God would attend to the rest. It was saying to 
them : " Your duty is to preach the gospel. That 
done, be not anxious for the result, any more than 
farmers are after seeding the soil. You will see after 
a season, though this method of reformation is new, 



148 The Abiding ComfoHer. 

and may seem inadequate, that your labor was not 
in vain ; and you shall gather a harvest of ripened 
grain. Fear not, therefore." 

This parable, it seems, is now the strong point in 
the argument of those who deprecate the constant 
preaching of holiness as received by faith alone. 
But the fallacy is apparent. Vegetable life has no 
duties, commands nor responsibilities. God, through 
the soil, the sun and rain, does all for it. Men are 
agents under a moral government, capable of willing 
or nilling, of obeying or rebelling against all laws. 
Believers are required " to work out their salvation 
with fear and trembling," while " God works in them 
to will and to do." Plants are not depraved, as men 
are. Sin is compared to leprosy, not curable by 
either medicine or charm, but by God alone. Men 
are defiled in every part. Conversion, pardon and 
regeneration are but the commencement of the cure 
and cleansing ; holiness perfects the gracious work. 

All Methodist ministers who use such illustrations 
to disprove the doctrine or the necessity of perfect 
love as a distinct grace conferred upon believers 
deny a leading doctrine of their own Church, plead for 
and excuse the present low state of piety in her 
members, and confess, unwittingly it may be, their 
own spiritual deficiency. Nay, more, by straining a 
parable of our Lord and compelling it to teach what 
it was never intended to convey, they deny the ne- 
cessity of any sudden change by faith from nature to 
grace, and make all religion from first to last consist 



Why many Fail to seek Holiitess. 149 

in growth rather than in any sudden change by the 
power of the Spirit. They cannot deny any one of 
these sad consequences, for they naturally flow from 
such teaching. If holiness is by growth, so is par- 
don and regeneration ; and then all vital religion, all 
fruits of the Spirit, are mere chimeras and exploded 
for ever ; and so far as the influence of such teaching 
extends, spiritual life and joyous piety are utterly 
driven out of the world. Still worse for us as a dis- 
tinct people, Methodism was never called for. It 
has misled the world by inducing men to think that 
a sudden spiritual change was both possible and ne- 
cessary. Perhaps we have preached more of that 
doctrine than any other people. Religion, if the 
parable used by this class of teachers be correctly 
applied, consists in cultivation and education. God 
is not in it only so far as in sending the gospel as the 
seed. After that Nature must do all, precisely as it 
does for the plant. Are orthodox believers willing 
to receive this theory ? 

Are our people satisfied to have taught in their 
pulpits such fallacies as sound theology, or to have 
them published in their religious periodicals ? I 
certainly hope not. Our youth should not be so 
educated. If they do receive and believe such 
theories, our glory has departed. At first we went 
up like a rocket, attracting the attention of all men ; 
now we must come down like a stick, utterly power- 
less. I am standing on the verge of eternity, just 
waiting in my tent door, looking on the Church of 

18* 



150 The Abiding Comforter. 

my love and most heartfelt affection, to see how the 
battle goes. The conflict is at its height. Wesley 
and Methodism cannot survive the loss of deep, joy- 
ous piety and burning love. A thousand heresies 
and false notions will be sure to follow such loss 
and rend us into fragments. Germany, the land of 
Luther, is a standing proof of this. Would that I 
could have the ear of all my dear brethren in the 
ministry ! would that they could be induced to sink 
down into Christ as a full Saviour ! That is the 
panacea that will cure all tendency to the use of such 
defensive fallacies, and make them men of one work 
as well as earnest men, full of the power now so much 
needed. Our hungering people need such men now 
more than ever before. Experience to a minister is 
as experience to a physician in everything. Theo- 
rists are of little account anywhere, especially in the 
pulpit and Church. Facts of deep experience soon 
blow all theories as do the winds the thistle flowers 
before them. 

READING. 

Rev. Richard Reese, a delegate from the Wesleyan 
Conference to our General Conference in 1824, said, 
in my hearing, to the young preachers before him : 
" Read Wesley in connection with your Bibles, 
Wesley is the most reliable theologian we have ever 
found. Fletcher is smart and deeply pious, but 
Wesley is the most trustworthy as a teacher of bibli- 
cal truth." Rev. J. Rushing, one of the fathers of 
the Philadelphia Conference, used to say to us young 



Why many Fail to seek Holiness. 151 

men : ** Read all the works of Mr. Wesley through 
every few years if you desire to retain your piety fresh 
and gushing. It will lead you along, up, up into the 
higher atmosphere of love, where there are but few 
clouds to obscure your vision of Christ." How true 
this is the writer well knows by his own experience 
for more than a half century. 

Mr. Wesley was wise and far-seeing in requiring 
his young ministers to read certain designated vol- 
umes of his sermons every year. They, in his opin- 
ion, I suppose, comprehended all Christian divinity 
that was needed to enable a minister to fully lead his 
hearers into all truth. He well knew the tendency 
in all ministers to leave first principles and dwell 
upon that which, however true, is not interesting to 
the soul's immediate salvation. The mind, dwelling 
on other matters — studies directed rather to please 
the fancy than spiritually to profit the soul — soon 
loses sight of what once filled the whole range of 
its vision. By hearing a man preach a few times 
you can generally tell what books he most reads, as 
water usually tastes of the minerals through which 
it passes. Science, philosophy and history are all 
useful studies, and the man of God should be well 
armed with every weapon of truth ; but if any stud- 
ies alien to the special work of teaching men the 
way to life and immortality are allowed to so absorb 
a minister's thoughts as to shut out or not allow him 
time or taste for that which is specially religious 
and experimental, his usefulness will soon cease. 



152 The Abiding Comforter, 

He may attract and please, may lead many into the 
Church, but few, if any, to Christ and salvation. 
He may, as many do, and have done through the 
ages, blaze for a time, but his piety will gradually 
die away, and he will go out in obscurity, and in 
more advanced life, when the tinsel of earthly things 
has lost its attraction, will wonder that he was so 
deceived and misled by the charms of popular ap- 
plause and personal fame. 

Experience fully justifies the wisdom of Wesley in 
requiring that certain more important matters should 
be read and reread to keep them fresh to recollection. 
As just remarked, the preaching, prayers and con- 
versation of all men will run mostly in the line of 
their general reading. Those, therefore, who read 
but little on the cardinal doctrines of religion, such 
as the fallen state of our race, redemption by the 
sacrificial sufferings of Christ and the fruit of that 
redemption, pardon, regeneration and holiness, may 
be expected to oppose in some way every movement 
to promote a deeper and more satisfactory piety in 
the Church. This opposition, however, is shown 
mostly by insinuations, opposition to modes of doing, 
rather than by directly opposing the doctrine of 
holiness itself. 

THE WAY OF HOLINESS IS TOO NARROW FOR SOME. 

It requires self-sacrifice — nay, more, self-cruci- 
fixion — and for this reason, if no other, " few there be 
that find it." " If any man will come after me, let 



Why many Fail to seek Holiness. 153 

him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me." 
" The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit 
against the flesh (even in believers), and these are 
contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do 
the things that ye would." Self-indulgence makes us 
like ill-trained children, " willful, heady, high-minded, 
lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God," and 
holiness has therefore but little attraction for such. 
The most sad fact of all is that those most lost 
through habit are usually the least aware of it. 

WEALTH IS ALSO A BAR. / '- 

/'A 
" How hardly shall they that have riches," no matter ^ ^ 

how honestly obtained, enter into, or even approve 
of others entering, the way of holiness ! The honor 
that Cometh from men is tempting. What man of 
means in this age is able to resist its sweet, seducing 
charms ? It is an age in which men of small ability, 
with a popular education and good connections, are 
easily promoted among their compeers. This is 
made a mark and becomes a seductive snare. Per- 
fect love requires singleness of aim as well as a 
steady faith in divine guidance, a faith which con- 
nects God with every transaction of life, both small 
and great. " The pure in heart see Him who is 
invisible" all the time, and know often by sad 
experience that faith is darkened by the slightest 
looking for or seeking the honor that cometh from 
men. 



154 The Abidhig Comforter. 

PROFESSORS OF HOLINESS ARE DECEIVED. 

This is a very common objection. Such objectors 
usually fix a very high standard, and expect all pro- 
fessors of holiness to come up to it, without once 
consulting the word of God, and then condemn, as 
deceived, all who fail to measure up to it. Some 
may be deceived and really mistaken in their own 
spiritual attainments. It would be strange if it were 
not so. Mr. Wesley says : " What then ? It is a 
harmless mistake, while he feels nothing but love in 
his heart. It is a mistake which generally argues 
great grace, a high degree of both holiness and hap- 
piness. This should be a matter of real joy to all 
that are simple of heart — not the mistake itself, but 
the height of grace which for a time occasions it. I 
rejoice that that soul is always happy in Christ, 
always full of prayer and thanksgiving ; I rejoice 
that he feels no unholy tempers, but the pure love 
of God continually; and I will rejoice if sin is sus- 
pended till it is totally destroyed." 

But it is doubtful whether so many make a mistake 
in "reckoning themselves dead indeed unto sin" as 
there are who believe they are justified, but are mis- 
taken. Both are liable to similar deception ; both 
may be mistaken. Why not object to religion alto- 
gether because a few are deceived ? There are no 
counterfeit bank-notes where there are none that are 
genuine. Many may be mistaken in thinking they 
are converted when they are not, but it may not 



Why many Fail to seek Holiness. 155 

injure them. If they are sincere, they will soon learn 
to judge of themselves correctly. God will lead 
them into clear light after a season. Apply this rea- 
soning to the loftiest profession of divine communion, 
and we are content. 

AMBITION BEWILDERS OTHERS. 

This is a natural element of our fallen nature. It 
does good when it prompts us to deeds of noble 
daring and emulation for the moral benefit of our 
race ; but when it has no object but self and per- 
sonal honor, it acts as a mote in the eye and dims 
the spiritual vision. Christ is our only true model, 
and "his glory was to do the will of the Father" 
and benefit our race. A bishop, a church officer, 
a well-educated minister of talents, may deeply 
hunger for sweeter communion with God ; his spirit- 
ual condition may be deemed safe, but he often feels 
that it is not satisfactory. The inquiry will come 
up in spite of himself, If I seek this fullness of per- 
fect love, how will it affect my standing before men ? 
Will the popular churches so approve my course as 
to be anxious as before to secure my services ? 

This sort of influence has induced many an uncon- 
verted but rising man in life to delay the work of 
repentance and reformation. The inquiry has come 
up, Who in popular life, "who among the rulers, 
have believed on Him" ? And yet the very minister 
who would urge him to disregard so unworthy a 
suggestion and seek now the salvation of his own 



156 TJie Abiding Comforter. 

soul, when urged himself by the Holy Spirit to seek 
the "gift of power from on high" to more fully fit 
him for his sacred work, would shrink back by 
reason of similar fears. The fear of losing caste and 
position has hindered many from rising into a life of 
faith and perfect love. This accursed worldly am- 
bition is the last thing that a popular layman or min- 
ister has to surrender in his full consecration. But 
it must be cast away. Christ cannot, will not, fully 
reign in a human heart unless he has it all to himself. 
" My son, give me thy heart" is his language to all 
of us. A heart full of love to God and humanity 
will raise any man or minister in the opinion of all 
men. The churches are now studiously peering over 
the list of ministers in search of just this class of 
men for pastors. The holy, devoted minister who 
forsakes all for Christ and his work " shall receive a 
hundred-fold in this life, and in the world to come 
everlasting life." This hindrance amounts only to a 
mere temptation of the devil. Nearness to Christ 
never injured any minister or member of his Church. 
An unsanctified minister is more or less a blind guide. 
He sees only part of the truth himself, and of course 
cannot teach what he does not know. How far will 
the woe pronounced by Christ on the religious teach- 
ers of his day apply to him ? 



CHAPTER XII. 
IVJIV WE PREACH HOLINESS. 
*' Be ye lioly, for I the Lord your God am holy." 

WE follow the best examples in the best ages of 
the Church. We believe that the most suc- 
cessful ministers of the past have been those who 
have preached the most definitely and earnestly on 
Christian experience — the deep, vital things of the 
Spirit. ** Have you received the Holy Ghost since 
ye believed ?" was a prominent question put to all 
believers in the purest and best age of the Church. 
Why was such a question asked then ? Why should 
it not be propounded now? We declared before God 
and man, in the most solemn form, that we "believed 
in being made perfect in love in this life, and that we 
were groaning after it." We deem it criminal in the 
highest degree to make such a declaration and after- 
ward pay no attention to it until a few hours before 
death. Others may disregard the solemn pledge 
thus made, but we dare not, believing that '' the 
Judge is at the door." 

We believe that our ministry will be known in 
eternity, that it will be a savor of life or of death to 
those who hear us, and that it cannot be the former 

14 167 



158 The Abiding Comforter. 

while we feel but little of the life of Christ in our 
own souls. Without having the unction of the Holy 
One ourselves, we cannot see how we can commend 
holiness forcibly to others. The feeling of a deeply 
pious heart cannot be imitated any more than an- 
other can imitate the feelings of a mother for her 
child. Our experience has fully convinced us that 
those to whom we preach never feel more than we 
do ourselves while uttering important and saving 
truths. If we are dry, so are they ; if we weep over 
the miseries of fallen humanity, the people are sure 
to sympathize in our emotions ; if our preaching 
does not touch upon the vitality and power of a felt 
experience, neither will their forms of speech in con- 
versation or the social means of grace. The minis- 
ter's manner, spirit and feeling, as well as his lack of 
feeling, are sure to be contagious and spread among 
the people. Is he earnest, so are they ; is he joyful, 
so are they ; is he deeply pious and living a life of 
faith, so do they. Are our opinions right, or are 
they erroneous ? If we are right, do you marvel 
that we preach holiness so steadily ? 

2. We deem it the only way to keep up the life of 
the Church. Our experience and observation con- 
firm the truth of what is said by Mr. Wesley : " As 
long as you are yourself earnestly aspiring after a 
full deliverance from all sin and a renewal in the 
whole image of God, God will prosper you in your 
labor, especially if you constantly and strongly ex- 
hort all believers to expect full salvation now by 



Why we Preach Holiness. 159 

simple faith ; and never be weary in well-doing : in 
due season you shall reap if you faint not." 

To this truth we pay a full tribute. There is 
always more or less of deep feeling in the preaching, 
prayers and conversation of all who themselves hold 
steady communion with God by faith. This never 
fails to attract the multitude, for all men love to see 
a minister in deep earnest and to know that he feels 
what he says. If, on the contrary, the preaching and 
prayers be cold, formal and mechanical, there are 
usually but few hearers, and they are those who come 
more from a sense of duty than from a love of the 
service. Preaching holiness fills the churches and 
keeps up a constant revival spirit. 

3. We preach perfect love or holiness also because 
the Bible is full of it, and our ecclesiastical system 
especially requires fervent piety. It is with us a 
deeply-seated conviction that Methodism cannot 
work smoothly in all its varied machinery without a 
deep, warm piety both in the pulpit and pews. The 
change of ministers every few years from one place 
to another, necessitated by our system, calls for self- 
sacrifices with us which exist not to the same extent 
among any other people. Let any one fancy our 
Church trying to keep all the parts of her excellent 
machinery working — the itineracy, love-feasts and 
class-meetings — without the love of Christ in its joy- 
ful influences on the hearts of both ministers and 
people, the hearty sympathy between the appoint- 
ing power, the pastors and people. Think of all 



i6o The Abiding Comfoi^cr. 

being done as a matter of business, without feeling — 
the power on the one hand and resistance on the 
other, the bishops, the elders and pastors all working 
on the principle of selfishness, each looking to " his 
gain from his quarter." How long would it take to 
break our system into fragments, or to make it one 
of tyranny and oppression ? All this has occurred 
before and is still possible. Of course we hope and 
believe better things, and things that accompany 
better success ; but fears are indulged to some ex- 
tent for the future of our itinerant system unless we 
retain the deep piety of the fathers. Our confidence 
for the future of any ecclesiastical body is in its con- 
tinued faith in God, warm love to each other and 
the souls of those to whom they are sent. 

That the indication for a few years past has been 
in that direction very many of our people have greatly 
feared. The changes have been enormous. But God 
has checked the tendency in part, and given a new 
and more vigorous spiritual life to thousands of both 
ministers and lay members by this very preaching of 
holiness. This statement will be objected to, per- 
haps, by many in the Church ; not, however, by such 
as Nathanael or Zechariah or Elisabeth of old, or 
the Wesleys, the Fletchers and Paysons of modern 
times, but by those who are without Christ, in 
a state of condemnation and spiritual death, but who 
unfortunately do not know it. With such all churches 
are well supplied, who are either really backslidden 
in heart or have never been truly regenerated. 



W/ij/ we Preach Holiness. i6i 

Such usually hate to hear of the doctrine of perfect 
love from the pulpit or in meetings for testimony. 
I rarely preach on the subject but what I hear in a 
day or two from some of them. I speak with con- 
fidence ; for having been a pastor for near half a 
century, and having led thousands of classes, I pro- 
fess to know the spiritual condition of my own 
Church as well as any one in this nation. I pretend 
herein to no special sagacity; but having been a pas- 
tor most of my life, and mixing largely with minis- 
ters, as well as official and private members, I have 
had large opportunities of knowing the true spiritual 
state of the Church. Officials cannot see this as 
clearly as attentive pastors can, though endowed 
with more sagacity. It is practical labor in any de- 
partment, and that only, which furnishes full inform- 
ation of its workings. 

Ten years ago the ** Methodist Recorder," pub- 
lished in London, in reporting the state of the Wes- 
leyan connection, said : *' The funds are all well sus- 
tained." All that was outward and depended on 
finances was all that could be desired. '* But there 
was a shrinkage of numbers." The attendance at 
class was not what it should have been, for want of 
spiritual, devoted class-leaders to keep the members 
alive and together. They had plenty of men for 
trustees and financiers, but ** lacked the right persons 
full of love and zeal to man their spiritual posts." 

Will any man of experience and observation say 
that our Church in this country was not a few years 
14 «- L 



1 62 TJic Abidivg Comfoiicr. 

back rapidly approaching the same condition? What 
pastor has not found it difficult to man his spiritual 
posts with such men as felt a deep interest in the 
spiritual profit and salvation of those about them, 
who were all alive to God and glowing with love for 
their fellow-men ? I need not say that none others 
are fit either for the pulpit or the class-room ; none 
others can by possibility build up or " feed the flock 
of Christ, which he hath purchased with his own 
blood." They may educate others in doctrine, dis- 
cipline, duties and forms of worship, but cannot 
spiritually profit many. 

But wherever holiness is enjoyed, professed and 
preached fully, specifically and clearly, it has 
changed this state of things for the better. Fill a 
man with love to God and all men, so that he has 
power with God in prayer, and power with men in 
holy sympathies, let him enjoy and " live a life of 
faith on the Son of God," ever " seeing Him who is 
invisible," then the deserted class-room will have 
an attraction as never before, and life and spiritual 
health will glow upon the faces of all the members. 
We know this to be so ; and since holiness has been 
clearly and explicitly preached and personally en- 
joyed by many pastors themselves, a great change 
has taken place in the laity. 

And what except coming back to Christ's plan for 
his Church — viz., " the gift of the Holy Ghost" — is 
the remedy for this coldness and loss of spiritual ef- 
ficiency ? Education, however useful in many re- 



Why we Preach Holiness. 163 

spects, cannot and never has reformed the Church or 
ministered spiritual hfe where there were sterihty and 
death. Shall we let the Church which is our mother, 
and that we love better than life itself, drift away 
from the warm, gushing piety for which she has been 
so distinguished ? Shall we allow her to imbibe and 
teach unsound doctrines on vital questions of ex- 
perience, such as are now springing up and are cher- 
ished by some of her ministers ? The most alarm- 
ing symptoms of this are certainly appearing in 
many places throughout the Church. This no one 
will deny. All of us desire it otherwise. But the 
question is, Where and what is the remedy ? Preach- 
ing holiness gave life to our whole system in its out- 
set, and we know of no other way to preserve it 
from decay. Low piety, as all history shows, always 
terminates in false notions and heresy in doctrine, or, 
what is but little better, mere formal, mechanical 
worship, by which the masses lose all sense of vital 
religion, as they had in England when God raised 
up the Wesleys to bring the people back to the 
teaching of Christ and his apostles by spreading the 
doctrine and experience of holiness. 

The doctrine of total depravity, or the lost con- 
dition of our race by the fall, is not sufficiently 
preached in this day. 

It never is in any Church where the higher experi- 
ence of perfect love is neglected or only partially 
dwelt upon. These two points of belief usually rise 
and fall together. An unrenewed man is rarely 



164 The Abiding Comforter. 

impressed with the depravity of his own heart. He 
reads of it or may hear it preached, but he does not 
feel it until he is fully awakened by the Spirit of God. 
This is true also of all believers when in a low state 
of ^race. The multitude drawn tos^ether bv the 
excitement in the upper room on the day of Pente- 
cost were professors of religion, and came up to 
Jerusalem to worship from their distant homes. 
Little did they think they were lost, unregenerate 
men at the time. But they soon felt it to be so 
when they rushed into such a scene as they there 
both heard and saw. Then they cried out in deep 
distress of soul, " ^len and brethren, what shall we 
do?" Nor was Saul of Tarsus conscious of the 
state of his own heart when persecuting Christians. 
Xo power of argument could have convinced him 
that he was not in a safe spiritual state. But after 
Christ himself had appeared to him he was in the 
deepest distress of soul, which continued for several 
days, until true spiritual light came. 

]Men in a natural depraved state are not easily 
convinced of it Do we expect them to see the need 
of a spiritual change without their first seeing their 
present danger as lost sinners? Why, then, not 
preach human depravity, and so portray the working 
of the natural heart as to convince men that they 
need a Saviour to deliver them ? 

The first book put into my hands when preparing 
for the ministr\- was Weslev on Orisrinal Sin ; and 
when on my first circuit, on inquiring of a prominent 



Why we Preach Holiness. 165 

local preacher what books I ought to read, he replied, 
** Study first man's lost condition as a sinner ; master 
that thoroughly. Then examine God's remedy for 
man's lost condition ; this will show you Christ and 
his work, and the results of it. If all the Scriptures 
bearing on these subjects are studied fully and in 
your memory, you will be prepared to preach at 
short notice anywhere, at any time, without much 
special preparation." 

" No bleeding bird or bleeding beast, 
Nor hyssop branch, nor sprinkling priest, 
Nor running brook, nor flood, nor sea. 
Can wash the dismal stain away," 

This sad state of the moral nature of every man 
will soon be seen by preaching holiness fully and 
faithfully. That is the reason why Mr. Wesley found 
that "a blessing always attended such preaching." 
That men are totally depraved has in these days 
come to be doubted by some of our ministers. I 
heard a Methodist minister of popular ability say in 
the pulpit a few years since : " The doctrine of total 
depravity is not true ; if it was, men would do all 
the evil they could." I doubted both parts of the 
utterance. If that be true, then Christ came to save 
those who were not wholly lost, which contradicts the 
Scriptures. And the song of the glorified will be : 
" Unto Him who hath washed us in part, and to the 
purity and excellence of unfallen nature in part, be 
the glory and praise of our salvation." The corol- 



1 66 The Abiding Comforter. 

lary, though absurd, is legitimate, and accords with 
experience. On asking a dying man of wealth and 
position in society a few years ago on what he relied 
his hope of future salvation, he replied : " Partly on 
Christ and partly on my own virtues." No wonder 
that such preaching awakens no one. It may well 
be called an " emasculated theology." How much 
better to take the simple teaching of Scripture, that 
all the good in us flows from the atonement ! All is 
lost by the fall, but we gain all by the divine remedy 
for sin. Preaching holiness will correct such wild 
theories ; nothing else can. 

The fathers of our Church, in their ministrations, 
dwelt much upon three points : the fallen condition 
of all men, redemption by the sacrifice of Christ and 
the fruits of that redemption, pardon of sin and the 
cleansing power of the Holy Ghost. This was the 
secret of their wonderful success. When we preach 
and live as they did the same great truths because 
we have felt their power on ourselves, our success 
will be quite equal to theirs, and not until then. 

Christ contemplates the conversion of this sinful 
world by the preaching of his gospel. This is the 
principal means he has put in the hands of his 
Church to bring revolted men back to allegiance to 
himself, and very much depends upon the manner 
and spirit in which we handle and present it. If we 
do it aright, his aid and our success are assured with- 
out a question, '* for the promises of God are not yea 
and nay, but are all yea, to the glory of God the 



Why we Preach Holiness. 167 

Father." We have seen that education alone cannot 
do this, for the best educated men are often the most 
hardened unbehevers, " even denying the Lord that 
bought them." Pulpit orators — for which there are 
now so many "itching ears" — without the Holy 
Ghost, never lead one soul to the Saviour. Whitfield 
was an orator, and wrought wonders during his short 
life; but his power was in the Holy Ghost and the 
steady assurance, the perfect certainty, that God was 
with him all the time. His entire life was " holiness 
to the Lord." In a letter to Charles Wesley from 
Philadelphia in 1764 he says: "Fain would I end 
my life in rambling after those who have rambled 
away from Jesus Christ." In another letter from 
America he says : " I am a roving hunter for souls 
in this vast wilderness, but oh it is glorious sport !" 

That is the sort of spirit we desire again to see 
infused into every minister of Christ. It is the spirit 
possessed by the apostles of our Lord " after that 
the Holy Ghost had come upon them," and we be- 
lieve that by preaching holiness, the " gift of power " 
will come upon both ministers and people, setting 
all at work as it did the first Church and the fathers 
of our own Church. We may be mistaken ; to 
err is human ; we willingly defer to the opinions of 
our brethren in most matters ; but we must be ex- 
cused for insisting on this one point — that without 
the felt presence of the divine Comforter no man is 
armed for the work demanded in the reformation of 
fallen men. He must feel it "a well of water spring- 



1 68 The Abiding Comforter. 

ing up into everlasting life." This we deem the 
highest and most indispensable qualification for em- 
inent usefulness. 

We believe and know that pardon and regeneration 
is a great grace, and we believe the apostles of our 
Lord enjoyed this grace while Christ was yet with 
them. But the Master deemed them unfit for their 
reformatory work until they had received the Holy 
Ghost, and the history shows that this did fit them as 
they were not fitted before. Our own experience, as 
well as the history of the Church in all ages, leads 
us to believe, therefore, that preaching holiness, the 
gift of " power from on high," is at present the most 
pressing want of the times. If you deem us in error 
and our teachings to be misleading, we should rejoice 
to hear your reasons for so thinking. We trust that 
we are open to conviction, but refrain from calling us 
hard names ; smite us, if you must, in kindness and 
love. If we wander from the teachings of Christ, 
the New Testament, or even from Mr. Wesley and 
the Fathers, we desire to be convinced of it in love. 
With our present convictions, experience and obser- 
vation, we " can do no other, God help us !" Hard 
words from any, either in high or low places of in- 
fluence in the Church, cannot stop us in our course ; 
rational arguments uttered in kindness and love may 
do it. Our all to Christ we have given, and he 
blesses us with some fruit. 

4. We preach holiness to make ministers good 
pastors, and to lead the people to help them. 



Why we Preach Holiness. 169 

When we live for God and the good of humanity, 
there is nothing in a minister's work too difficult for 
us to do. Hard things are made easy. Jacob's love 
for Rachel made his service seem a trifling burden. 
Pastoral work, when the heart is in it, is the life of a 
man of God, as it ministers health to both body and 
mind and enables him to preach more to the edifi- 
cation of his people. A poor emaciated young 
woman on whom I once called, when visiting in the 
country, said as I was leaving : " Oh, if I only had a 
pastor to come and sympathize with me, it would 
greatly comfort me in passing through the dark 
valley. He comes occasionally and prays in my 
room, but that is all." She died without such aid. 

No moral, cold-hearted minister, though ever so 
wise and attractive in the pulpit, is fit for such a work 
as that. Nothing but a baptism of the Holy Ghost 
can make any man love such work or fill him with 
the divine sympathies so needed in it. We speak 
what we do know, and have felt in bitter experience. 
The baptism of the Holy Ghost is the only remedy 
of which we have any knowledge for lack of 
sympathy for those who are in bitterness. Can we 
furnish a better reason for preaching perfect love to 
God and genuine love for our neighbor? If you 
believe justification will do all this for all men, then 
preach it steadily, and we are content, but such has 
not been our experience. 

The pastor is engaged in the most sublime work 
ever entrusted to man. He has the care of souls 

15 



I/O The Abiding Comforter. 

"for whom Christ died." His responsibilities are 
not to men only, but to God, " the Judge of all the 
earth." He is bound to look after and labor for the 
good, not only of the members or attendants of his 
own church, but all who are near him, though 
thoughtless and wicked. It may be that many a 
poor sickly one, languishing and lonely, who can 
truly say " no man careth for my soul," is in some alley 
near his church. No pious, praying person calls to 
see him in his humble home. No word of cheer 
ever falls upon his ear ; all is sadness and gloom. 
And there he has to pine away and die almost alone, 
when there may be several ministers and many pious 
people living quite near him. Will God excuse this 
neglect ? 

What a fine opportunity for a man of God of the 
right spirit ! How much good he could do, with a 
deep, joyful piety, full of Christian sympathy for the 
poor and suffering ! What a healthful exercise it 
would be to both body and mind to find all such 
out, sing a cheerful verse or two, and pray with and 
for them ! W^hen we sink down deep into the Spirit 
of Christ, then, and then only, will such a work be 
pleasant and inviting. There are always a few in 
every church, in both city and country, on whom 
the Holy Spirit has laid a sense of responsibility for 
the sick and poor. These are greatly encouraged 
when their pastor sympathizes with them and aids 
their efforts. Deep, joyful piety is sure to lay this 
work on our hearts as well as on our hands. Noth- 



Why we Preach Holiness. 171 

ing else can induce a love for it. Love is sympa- 
thetic and tender, making us debtors to others, even 
the thankless and criminal. The great apostle 
preached " from house to house," and said : ** God is 
my record how greatly I long after you all in the 
bowels of Jesus Christ;" in the sympathies of Jesus. 

There is a heroism in the religion of Christ, which 
is not yet fully brought out. But the Church is 
becoming more and more imbued with it in every 
Christian land. The day is dawning, the night is 
passing away ; and when perfect love animates the 
hearts of all who now profess to be Christ's followers, 
we shall see heroic labors for the good of others. 

The venerable Dr. Nott, the honored president of 
Union College, I think in 1858, said in a union 
prayer-meeting in this city : *' When I look at the 
New Testament Church and compare it with the 
Church of the present day, I am compelled to say 
the latter is very unlike the former — so much so that 
they hardly resemble each other. One would scarcely 
know the modern to be a Christian Church after a 
faithful study of the apostolic pattern." He was a 
wise and good man, a great thinker, then standing on 
the verge of time, looking into the eternal world, 
whither he has since gone. Nor was he a croaker, 
but full of divine charity, cheerfully awaiting his 
*' appointed time." 

Thousands of others wise and thoughtful like him, 
and holding similar opinions, are now living in the 
Church. Current history is full of facts in proof that 



1/2 The Abiding Comforter. 

the Church, with all her educational advantages, 
through the influence of wealth and fashion, is drift- 
ing away, imperceptibly to herself, from her former 
purity and vigorous piety. The might of the fath- 
ers was in being ^' crucified to the world, and the 
world unto them;" and however hard this self-cruci- 
fixion, this death to wealth and its attractions, of 
honor and preferment, a steady, living faith that fully 
unites to Christ is, in our opinion, impossible with- 
out it. 

A warm, deep fervency of spirit is difficult to 
maintain without close self-scrutiny. Am I Christ's 
now? Does the sap of spiritual life flow from the 
Vine into me as a branch ? Are prayer, preaching, 
conversation on the deep things of God, our chief 
delight and pleasure, or have we no taste for them ? 
Men usually hold on to the forms of religion and a 
public profession long after the devotional spirit has 
passed away. Such at least has been the history of 
the Church ever since the ascension of our blessed 
Lord. But in all ages there have been a few who, 
observing this tendency, have steadily labored to keep 
their own piety warm and glowing, and to use means 
to stir up the gift of God in those about them. 

5. We preach holiness as the most direct method 
of the world's reformation. Show us a better, more 
scriptural plan of labor, and we will adopt it at once. 
Will you blame us for doing the best we can with 
our present light? We are aware that the office 
and work of a Reformer, however sincere and con- 



Why we Preach Holiness. 173 

scientious, is always a thankless one. He is usually 
in the minority, and surrounded by the poor and non- 
influential even in his own communion. Reforms 
rarely commence at the top of society, but mostly 
at the bottom, among the lowly ; so it was in the time 
of our Lord and his apostles, so it was in the days 
of Wickliffe, Luther and the Wesleys, and so it will 
be most likely to the end of time. Leading, influ- 
ential men in all churches are usually quite content 
to let matters remain as they are ; or perhaps it is 
timidity or fear of results. Changes are often con- 
sidered dangerous to the stability of church affairs, 
the reason, perhaps, why they are not usually favored 
by church officials ; at least whatever may be the 
reason, history fully sustains the fact. 

Wesleyan Methodism was started in an effort to 
reform the Church of England by preaching only 
the doctrines taught in her articles and homilies. 
Yet they were new to the very ministers and people 
who had recited and chanted them from childhood. 
The people were startled as by an earthquake which 
awakens men from a deep sleep. They could not 
abide either the doctrine or the manner of preaching 
it; they would have none of it, and excluded the 
Wesleys from the very pulpits they had been edu- 
cated and ordained to fill. How glad I am for that ! 
How thankful the world should be that it was done ! 
It enlarged their influence ; they became giants at 
once by being driven into the open air, God's own 
temple, to deliver their messages and offer their 

15* 



1/4 The Abiding Comforter. 

prayers for the ignorant and lost. The fawning 
flattery and praise of the wealthy classes might have 
disturbed their purpose and dried up their piety. 
As it was, they fled to Christ as their only helper, 
and pursued their work with the greater ardor. 
Compelled by the winds of heaven, and without pul- 
pits on which to spread their manuscripts, they learned 
to preach without written sermons and to pray with- 
out'books. God compelled them to talk to men in- 
stead of read to them ; and Methodist ministers have 
mostly copied their example since — a principal reason 
for our unexampled success in this new country. 
We have a grand history, a wonderful organization ; 
may God pour upon it his Holy Spirit to keep it full 
of life ! 

6. Our aim is to quicken all believers, raise the tone 
of piety and fill the Church with the joy of faith. 
Then, and not until then, will the Church be a light to 
all men, '* fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and ter- 
rible as an army with banners." Holiness and sin, 
truth and error, good-will and hatred, vice and vir- 
tue, are opposites. They are in constant and deadly 
conflict. Like opposites in chemistry, they will so 
continue until the one overcomes and neutralizes the 
other. An acid or an alkali will be perfectly quiet 
when alone, but throw them together and there is a 
conflict, which only ceases when the weaker one is 
perfectly subdued. Then quietness is again re- 
stored. 

Precisely so it is with vice and virtue, holiness 



Why we Preach Holiness. 175 

and unholiness. There is no neutral ground to be 
occupied while this conflict is going on. Christ 
himself has settled this question for all time: "They 
who are not for us are against us, and those who 
gather not with us scatter abroad." In this conflict 
we would not occupy a position which by any tor- 
ture of the facts in the case can create even a sus- 
picion that we are in a state of neutrality. We be- 
lieve that God, angels and all good men are on the 
one side, and Satan, vicious habits, irreligion and all 
the vices of this vile world are on the other. We 
are in the habit of thinking that the gospel and the 
" power from on high " are God's remedies for all 
the woes of the world. The gospel preached earn- 
estly, not moral essays written with logical exact- 
ness and coldly read to the multitude because they 
are willing to pay for it, but such a gospel as St. 
Paul preached with a warmth and fervor that caused 
Felix, the corrupt ruler, to tremble at the words of a 
prisoner in bonds, and compelled Agrippa to lose his 
self-possession as a king and confess before the bit- 
ter multitude his deep conviction of its truth and 
power. 

This sort of preaching is quite impossible to all 
who fail to receive a little at least of the same power 
which rested on the great apostle to the Gentiles. 
That it does not rest upon many of us we know right 
well, and one half of those who hear us know it as 
weir as we do. Education has never conferred this 
power ; it did not even when the Master himself was 



176 The Abiding Comforter. 

the teacher. After all he did for them, after all his 
instructions as to their work, he commanded them 
to wait for the gift of the Spirit, the promised Com- 
forter. This, and nothing short of this same Spirit 
dwelling within, can give us power both with God 
and men. 

This instantly made the first church a power 
which shook all Jerusalem. The city of David was 
filled with alarm for the safety of their cherished but 
effete system of worship. So it will be again, in our 
opinion, when all true believers are filled with the 
Holy Ghost, and not until then. A minister thus 
endowed enters his pulpit with an elastic step ; he is 
never alone there, for Christ is always with him. 
His own experience enlightens every gospel theme 
on which he dwells. His soul yearns most for those 
whom the world holds most in contempt — the de- 
graded and brutalized by evil company and habit. 
Christ came to seek and save the lost, and for these 
the deeply spiritual yearns the most. To reach this 
delightful state a man must consent to be singular, 
and, as matters are now, willingly bear the reproach 
of the cross, whatever it may be. 

7. We are all Wesleyans. No one is entitled to 
be called by that name, so honored of God on both 
sides of the ocean, who does not follow his faith in 
this his leading doctrine. God evidently led him to 
see, enjoy and preach this great Bible doctrine. It 
is the central leading purpose of all the divine revel- 
ations to men to recover them from sin, from all sin, 



Why ive Preach Holiness. lyj 

and make them holy. For this has the chariot from 
heaven so many times visited earth. For this the 
ancient seers, poets and apostles were called, led, 
wrote, warned, preached, suffered and often died a 
violent death. For this the Son of God came to 
earth, lived, labored, suffered, died and rose again, 
and ascended into heaven, all to redeem and save 
men from all sin. 

No wonder Mr. Wesley deemed it the most import- 
ant doctrine of the Bible, and said that a blessing always 
attended its ministrations. He wrote thus to Adam 
Clarke, in November, 1790 : '* To retain the grace of 
God is much more than to gain it ; hardly one in 
three does this. And this should be strongly and 
explicitly urged on all who have tasted of perfect 
love. If we can prove that any of our local preach- 
ers or leaders, either directly or indirectly, speak 
against it, let him be a local preacher or leader 
n9 longer. I doubt whether he should continue 
in the society, because he that could speak thus 
in our congregations cannot be an honest man." 

That is our position precisely. Enemies to our 
system of belief on this vital doctrine of grace had 
better be outside the Church than inside. They will 
do less harm there. 

In another letter to Mr. Clarke he thus speaks : 
" Every week, and almost every day, I am bespattered 
in the public papers. Many are in tears on the oc- 
casion, many terribly frightened, and crying out, 
'Oh, what will the end be?' What will it be? 

M 



1/8 The Abiding Comforter. 

Why, glory to God in the highest, and peace and 
good-will among men. But meantime what is to 
be done ? What will be the most effective means to 
stem this furious torrent? I have just visited the 
classes, and find still in the society upward of a thou- 
sand members, and among them many as deep Chris- 
tians as any I have met with in Europe. But who 
is able to watch over these that they may not be 
moved from their steadfastness ? I know none more 
proper than Adam Clarke and his wife." 

That society was in Dublin. What wonderful 
success followed his preaching holiness ! But these 
sheep needed a good faithful shepherd. Mr. Wesley 
was careful to look after that. And so should the 
appointing power be always. A cold pastor soon 
freezes up a warm piety in any place to which he is 
sent. Ought we to apologize for preaching holi- 
ness ? 

8. Religion, to reach and reform the masses in our 
land, must be more demonstrative than it has been 
for some years past. The holy praying women of 
the West, in their efforts to cure a national curse, 
have shown us what can be done by a truly demon- 
strative way of working. Messrs. Moody and Sankey, 
the one a Congregationalist and the other a Method- 
ist, have exhibited to all men what can be done by 
extraordinary labors for God and all classes of 
people. England, Scotland and Ireland will not 
lose for many years, if ever, the impulse in the right 
direction which they have thus received from the 



Why we Preach Holiness. 179 

labors of these men. Both these movements have 
been by the lay element in the churches. 

Of course God was with them and the Holy Com- 
forter was within them, for no men or women could 
do the mighty works that they have done except 
God had been with and in them. All men concede 
this. It was a demonstrative way of doing God's 
work, out of the usual order altogether, and therefore 
the more startling. And the slumbering multitude 
in the Church and out of it must be startled or die 
in their sins. The brethren of the National Camp- 
meeting Association have made religion demonstra- 
tive also; and thereby done a service for all the 
churches of every name, as well as led many thou- 
sands from the ways of sin to a life of piety. If the 
good is done, we should all rejoice, whether the 
mode of doing it suits our taste or not. Whenever 
I hear any one object to the way in which a man is 
working for the reformation and salvation of his fel- 
lows, I want to ask him what good he is doing and 
how he is trying to do it. God requires every be- 
liever to do something for others. So Mr, Wesley 
did a hundred years ago, when he aroused a dozing 
nation. God's work is uniform in all the ages. 
First the workman, the instrument, must be right 
himself, holding personal communion with God. 
All labor fails without this, though ever so demon- 
strative; and this cannot be simulated successfully 
by the most adroit. The matter preached also must 
have an immediate bearing on the scriptural plan of 



i8o Tlie Abiding Comforter, 

salvation. The laborer himself saved, his whole 
soul must be absorbed in a grand endeavor to ex- 
pound, enforce and apply the truths which are above 
all other truths, and are " the power of God unto the 
salvation of men." All sensible men have marked 
the difference between preaching religion and preach- 
ing about it. A whole lifetime may be spent in the 
latter sort of preaching without awakening a single 
soul to a sense of his condition, while one sermon on 
the true need and way of mercy sometimes has led 
a whole assembly to cry out, inwardly if not out- 
wardly, " God be merciful to us sinners !" 

As to what is to be preached, Mr. Wesley says : 
" The points I chiefly insist on are four : First, that 
orthodoxy or right opinion, or harmlessness, or ex- 
ternally doing good, or using the means of grace, 
works of piety or charity, none of them, or all to- 
gether, do constitute religion. It (religion) is none 
other than the mind of Christ, the image of God 
stamped upon the heart, attended with the peace of 
God and joy in the Holy Ghost. Secondly, that the 
only way to this religion is repentance toward God 
and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Thirdly, that by 
this faith he that worketh not, but believeth on him 
that justifieth the ungodly, is justified freely by his 
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 
And lastly, that, being justified by faith, we taste of 
heaven to which we are going." He says this in 
1739, when his life-work had just commenced. 

This sort of preaching in the churches, in school- 



Why we Preach Holiness. i8i 

houses, in market-places, on the street and on com- 
mons, wherever standing-room can be obtained, by 
men ** full of faith and the Holy Ghost," would soon 
change the state of morals in any community. Poli- 
ticians would fail if they were not demonstrative, and 
so will the power of religion over the masses if no 
more is done than merely keep up the churches that 
are built, and continue to build more as our wealth 
increases, enabling us to bear the expense. Scotland 
abounded with churches long before the recent visit 
of the American evangelists, yet the common people 
were mostly in the dark as to what a vital spiritual 
religion was — precisely the condition in which the 
masses in England were when the Wesleys were 
providentially driven from the churches and com- 
pelled to quit reasoning on religious notions, and, 
like Philip did in Samaria, "preach Christ to the 
people" in the streets. Religion to be effective must 
be demonstrative, as the history of every great moral 
reformation fully proves. 

We have been trying to change men in habit and 
taste by moral suasion, lectures and laws. We shall 
find in the end that God's methods are the only true 
and effectual ones. Christ did not send the apostles 
to lecture on temperance or intemperance, or any 
other abstract vice or virtue, but to *' preach the 
gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." 
That has reformed society everywhere it has been 
tried. It will do it again in any part of the world, 
because it is the divine method. Human efforts to 

16 



1 82 The Abiding Comforter. 

reach and cure the vices of fallen men are more or 
less useful, and keep many men at work when they 
would otherwise be idle. But he who leans on them 
alone, with much hope, is sure to be disappointed in 
the end. Lecturers against the follies of Romanism, 
the errors of Universalism, the vice of intemperance, 
or any other vice or error, may think to accomplish 
much for society, and they may be very sincere, but 
I have long since ceased to expect much good to 
result from their labors. God's plan alone is to this 
hour without one failure, and will be to the end of 
all earthly things. 

Men do not first prune the tree of all its branches 
and then strike at the root and cut it down. That 
would be great folly ; but to try to reform men by 
pruning off each vicious temper, taste or habit 
would be still greater folly. Strike at the root, cut 
down the tree first ; all is easy then. The disease is 
in the heart : " For out of the heart proceed evil 
thoughts, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, 
blasphemies : these are they that defile a man." 
The physician tries to find the seat of the disease, 
and is sure he cannot successfully check the fever 
until its cause is removed. Nor will reformers suc- 
ceed in any other way. 

Let every man be led to see himself ruined by 
sin ; teach him that no outward form of morals or 
religion, no communion in the use of sacramental 
elements, no prayers or devotions, can change his 
moral condition. 



Why we Preach Holiness, 183 

"Jesus, my Lord, thy blood alone 
Hath power sufficient to atone; 
Thy blood can make me white as snow ; 
No Jewish types could cleanse me so." 

Here is the panacea, the only remedy, for the vices 
and woes of human society. Tell every man this, 
in public, in private, in preaching, " with the Holy 
Ghost sent down from heaven," not in well-bred 
whispers only, but like a man full of ** the power 
from on high," as did the apostles of our Lord, and 
sure as is the promise of God there will follow 
marked reformations. The word cannot, will not, 
return void and unsuccessful. We cannot warrant 
any other means of reformation, for God has not 
commanded any other. 

But this never will be done in the right way by 
any man or set of men until the divine Comforter, 
the Holy Ghost, fall upon them. The apostles of 
our Lord could not have made a mark in society 
without this fullness. Cowardice, fear of men and 
fear of themselves, their support, their personal 
safety, — all these would have loomed up before their 
affrighted vision and driven them to their fishing- 
nets. But the divine baptism on the day of Pente- 
cost made them fearless reformers of the demon- 
strative kind. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

RECENT REVIVAL OF HOLINESS. 

" And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to 
another, What meaneth this ?" 

HOLINESS, as a work wrought in us subse- 
quently to justification, has been one of our 
principal doctrines during and since the time of the 
Wesleys. It is not improbable that we never should 
have been a separate people, or had an existence as 
a Church, but for this one point in Christian doc- 
trine and experience. It has been preached by our 
ministers, and experienced by them as well as by 
our people in all the years of our history. Special 
services and publications to promote holiness within 
the last forty years started with Mrs. Phebe Pal- 
mer, who bore her testimony almost alone for 
many years, and it was no doubt her influence 
and labors that started what has since followed. 
Within the last seven or eight years, however, it 
has become especially prominent by means of 
the national camp-meetings. The first of the series, 
held at Vineland, New Jersey, was an experiment, 
appointed by a few brethren '' whose hearts the 
Lord had touched," in connection with the pre- 

184 



Recent Revival of Holiness. 185 

siding elder of the district, to revive and promote 
the experience of Christian holiness in the Church. 
It was a success beyond their expectation. Other 
similar meetings for the same purpose have been 
held in many sections of the country since, being 
confined by no conference or State boundaries. This 
extensive scope gave the meetings the name of na- 
tional. It was a humble movement at first, was 
started in much prayer and deep religious feeling, 
almost without any organization, but with the spe- 
cific aim of leading believers generally to a higher pur- 
pose, as well as a loftier experience in divine things. 

The doctrine preached was purely biblical, and 
specifically Wesleyan and Methodistic. Having 
been deeply interested, and having watched the 
movement carefully from the first, I am quite sure 
that the preaching, exhortations and prayers, as well 
as their very songs, have all been in accordance with 
sound orthodox theology and Christian experience. 
Men on fire with hallowed and deep feeling them- 
selves since the descent of the Holy Ghost on the 
day of Pentecost always have delivered impassioned 
discourses and prayers. They cannot do otherwise. 
It is of God that it is so. If a man of God curbs his 
impulses to please phlegmatic hearers, he soon finds 
himself forsaken. One summer would have ended 
these camp-meetings and sent the brethren home in 
defeat had this been done. But the work fook wide 
range and gave enlargement to their souls, already 

16* 



1 86 TJie Abiding Comforter. 

on fire with love for the whole race of men, and, as is 
always the case, increased their zeal for God. Of 
course objections were made to the manner of their 
preaching rather than what they preached. This, 
being expected, was met with all kindness and love. 
It was none other than the precise form of oppo- 
sition (the violence excepted) which met the Wes- 
leys from ministers and members of their own 
Church. 

THE WORK WAS EVIDENTLY PROVIDENTIAL. 

Our own and all other Churches needed such a 
movement or something analogous to it. The war 
had just closed. The morals of thousands had 
been injured beyond recovery, except by some at- 
tractive rehVious movement that evidentlv had God 
in it. Money was abundant and cheap. The means 
of wealth, and the changes which wealth induces in 
the modes of living, were within the reach of many 
who had been poor and pious before. All men of 
experience know how wealth affects its possessors, 
especially such as have not been accustomed to the 
opportunities of evil which it furnishes. The his- 
tory of England after Scotland had been subdued 
and the war had ceased is a case in point. The 
churches were either closed or deserted. Theatres 
were ever open and filled. London was said to be 
one vast playhouse. But God, the wise Reformer, is 
not at a loss for remedies. As the fiery flying ser- 
pents came upon the people of Israel in the time of 



Recent Revival of Holiness. 187 

fullness of bread, so fell the black plague upon that 
metropolis, and swept away, it is said, nearly one- 
fourth of its population in a short time. Then the 
theatres closed, and the churches were opened and 
crowded almost day and night; and it could have 
been said of almost every one, ** Behold, he 
prayeth !" 

The history of the world is full of similar experi- 
ences and examples. Why God did not correct our 
vicious tendencies in a similar way is not for us to 
say. But the revival of the churches by pouring 
out his Holy Spirit in an unusual manner was cer- 
tainly, as it seems to us, a more merciful measure 
of reform. 

This is always done by first quickening a few, and 
using these to act upon and influence the many. By 
this movement Christ has quickened thousands, and 
raised them up from a low, unsatisfactory piety to a 
higher life of holy communion with himself The 
agents employed in such cases usually suffer re- 
proach for the time, as did Luther, Whitfield and 
the Wesleys. History, however, will do justice to 
all men. The way of holiness may be too narrow 
for many. It always has been. Men usually say, 
Let well enough alone. We all believe in holiness, 
and some of us preach it. We might ask. Where 
are the results unless experience compels ? Both 
the Wesleys believed in holiness, and preached it 
for ten years, but with how little success until they 
realized experimentally what they taught ! Then 



1 88 Tlic Abiding Comforter. 

they saw results at every service. And so it has 
ever been. How {&\n of us would reach manhood's 
prime but for the tender affection God has given 
mothers ! 

Let us look at a few marks of divine influence 
resting on the work from its commencement : 

1. It has continued from the beginning until now 
without perceptible abatement. Had the movement 
been of men, it would have long since passed away. 
Indeed, the people are now more earnest to hear and 
read on the subject of holiness and the higher life 
than at any previous period. " The common people 
heard the Saviour gladly" when the ruling classes 
were bitter against him. Nothing in the present cen- 
tury has so arrested the attention of the churches 
and believers generally as has this movement to pro- 
mote perfect love among professors in all denomina- 
tions. 

2. The quickening and spiritual life it has imparted 
to all the churches. Camp-meetings were almost a 
thing of the past. We were becoming fashionable, 
living in more elegance than formerly, and encamp- 
ing in the woods was deemed vulgar with many of 
our people. But the marked success of these meet- 
ings in the forest in raising the tone of piety has 
given camp-meetings a new start. They are now 
more numerous and powerful than ever before. And 
what is still better, holiness is the theme of one-half 
of the discourses delivered on the grounds, no dif- 
ference what may be the private views of those who 



Recent Revival of Holiness. 189 

control the services. That was especially the case in 
1873, at Ocean Grove. It was not a national camp- 
meeting, but the drift of all the sermons, experience- 
meetings, prayers and holy songs was very decidedly 
in that direction. 

This is the case also with the classes, prayer- 
meetings and love-feasts now held in most of our 
churches, both in city and country. Strike out the 
songs and melodies now used in most of our social 
meetings everywhere, originating as they did in this 
wave of holy love that has swept over the nation 
within the last seven years, and there would be little 
left. The Church is a planetary distance above 
where she was before, in zeal and pious energy. 
Many more souls have been led to Christ from the 
ways of sin than formerly. Preaching holiness, by 
fixing a true standard of scriptural piety, as it always 
does, has awakened a deeper concern even among 
the ungodly and profane. Even the witness of the 
Spirit to our pardon and adoption, preached in 
almost every sermon forty years ago, had been of 
late rarely heard by our people from the pulpit or in 
the class-room. 

My brethren both in the ministry and among the 
laity will certainly bear witness to the truth of this. 
There was a sad degeneracy in this respect, and in 
some degree it is so yet among those who fail to see 
the hand of God in the recent movement. There is 
no use of quibbling or trying to deny or conceal the 
proofs. Moral essays even now are often heard by 



igo TJie Abiding Comforter. 

our people instead of that gospel which is the power 
of God unto salvation. The very men who deny the 
need of any further cleansing than pardon and justi- 
fication bring are, so far as my observation has gone, 
the least in the habit of preaching on the witness of 
the Spirit as a necessity to pardoned believers. This 
is well known in the Church. They frequently dwell 
on the gift of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, which 
has no reference whatever to the personal pardon 
and justification of the one hundred and twenty on 
whom it fell. It was given for no such purpose, as 
they were regenerated long prior to that wonderful 
day. But as this point is discussed elsewhere, I will 
simply say such opinions do not exist except among 
a few whose ideas can never make much impression 
upon the Church because of their manifest absurdity. 

3. All the funds of the Church have been greatly 
augmented. The missionary collections, with what 
the Church most needs, the missionary spirit, have 
been much enlarged. Perfect love that makes a man 
feel that every other man is his brother is just what 
every believer needs, and this divine work of holiness 
all through the Church has produced this result ; 
and its effects will be more and more apparent as the 
work progresses. Oh how it enlarges one's soul to 
feel that Christ is with him, and commands the ser- 
vice of all his abilities in doing good to others ! 

One of its officers has said that the Church exten- 
sion collections have been very much enlarged and 
aided by the recent wave of mercy. And the 



Recent Revival of Holiness. 191 

Church periodicals have also received large addi- 
tions to their lists of subscribers ; while a score of 
independent presses have sent smaller sheets, 
books and periodicals among thousands who cared 
but little for religious reading before. Piety and 
love need food, and will have it in defiance of all 
opposition. " The Guide to Holiness," published by 
the now immortalized Mrs. Palmer, for many years 
fed the joyous love of thousands long before the 
national camp-meetings were thought of Indeed, 
the entire movement originated, under God, in the 
piety and labors of that extraordinary woman. The 
'* Home Journal " also has been a power in the 
Church for many years. And more recently week- 
lies and monthlies have sprung up all over the land 
to supply reading suited to the changed tastes and 
thirsting souls of the people. In this the work re- 
sembles that of the Wesleys one hundred years ago. 
John Wesley in prose and Charles in poetry kept 
the common people of England constantly reading of 
" the wonderful work of the Lord ;" so it is now all 
over this land. The good done already by this 
means is incalculable, and the work has but just 
commenced. God speed it with still greater power 
" until the wilderness and the solitary place shall be 
glad for them," and let all the people say. Amen ! 

4. Consecrated laborers have been wonderfully 
multiplied. The women who started the prayer- 
meetings in the saloons which recently created such 
a stir in the West, nine-tenths of them, received the 



ig2 The Abiding Comforter. 

power fJ-om on high either at or by means of the 
national camp-meetings. The itahcised words I have 
from a man who hves near the scenes of their labors 
and knows all the facts of the case. The movement 
was of God, who had by this mighty wave of holy 
love prepared the agents he afterward used in call- 
ing the nation's attention to its most threatening evil. 
Whatever may be said of that remarkable move- 
ment, however viewed from the cold standpoint of 
indifference or the heated feeling of self-interest, it 
has aroused public sentiment against the liquor traf- 
fic on a wider scale than any other modern move- 
ment ; and although some quietness may have en- 
sued since, the end is not yet. 

Rev. Dr. Merrick, late president of Ohio Wesleyan 
University, writes from Delaware, Ohio, under date 
of March 4, 1874: "We are in the midst of the 
most wonderful movement I have ever witnessed. 
Those not mingling in it can form but little concep- 
tion of what it is. It is called a temperance move- 
ment, but its chief characteristic is its profoundly re- 
ligious spirit. Such penitence, such humility, such 
humble trust in God, such a sense of the divine 
presence, I have rarely, if ever, witnessed even in the 
most powerful revivals of religion. Christians are 
drawn together far more closely than they were in 
the meetings of the Evangelical Alliance. Surely 
they unite their hearts in prayer and praise, as God 
strangely manifests his presence in their assemblies. 
All feel that God is in this work. I dare say but lit- 



Recent Revival of Holiness. 193 

tie ; in such a presence our words should be few. 
Ride on, thou conquering King!" 

All that as the result of the recent preaching of 
holy love and power as the privilege of all God's 
people! Preachers of pardon and justification only 
as the highest grace needed or possible to Christians 
should learn a lesson here of the gift of the Holy 
Ghost as an absolute necessity to such as desire to 
labor for God. 

5. The whole Church has felt the impulse unusu- 
ally. The prayer-meetings, classes and love-feasts 
all bear witness of it. Men and women who were 
silent before now with full heart and open mouth 
proclaim the riches of that grace which has intro- 
duced them into the clear light in which they daily 
live and walk. Even those churches where the pas- 
tors'fail to sympathize in the holy fervor abound with 
members all alive to God, and are holding social 
meetings weekly to promote the hallowed feeling 
and save as many souls as they can ; and God is 
with them. Thousands of professors are now work- 
ing for Christ who were worse than silent and idle 
before this power came upon them. 

R. PEARSALL SMITH AND WIFE, 

two persons of remarkable adaptation to Chris- 
tian labor. With both gifts and grace they had 
been always ready to do what good they could 
before, but at the national camp-meetings they re- 
ceived the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Subse- 
17 N 



194 TJie Abiding Comforter. 

quently, they have both been burning and shining 
hghts, leading others into the clearer light. They 
have been laboring in England since last autumn, 
and have been remarkably owned of God, and the 
work still goes on without abatement. Being spe- 
cially invited, they visited Paris, and Mr. Smith thus 
addressed many of the pastors, with other persons of 
distinction : 

" The great movement is going on over the world. 
A fresh breath of life is passing over Christians, and 
from the most distant parts of the world tidings come 
showing that there was a breathing after holiness 
and a deeper acquaintance with Christ. It was no 
denominational movement, but men of all denomina- 
tions were waking up to realize in their joyous ex- 
perience many truths which had been hitherto held 
too much in theory — an assurance of faith in a living 
Saviour. The desirability and practicability of living 
a life of cloudless, uninterrupted communion with 
God — the desire awakened that God would thor- 
oughly search the heart and reveal all impediments 
to this communion. Numbers were now testifying 
that religion was a perpetual joy, and many who 
had lived a groaning life are seeking to be filled with 
the Holy Ghost. Many in England had experi- 
enced this great increase of spiritual life, but where 
is the need so great as in Paris? The visible results 
of Mr. Moody's work in Scotland are seen in thou- 
sands turning to the Lord, which makes it almost a 
work of sight." 



Recent Revival of Holiness. 195 

As a result of this meeting, eight pastors, repre- 
senting the principal churches in Paris, signed a cir- 
cular inviting the Christians of Paris to a series of 
afternoon meetings at the Wesleyan chapel, and to 
services in various churches, to hear Mr. R. P. Smith 
on the subject of entire consecration to God and of 
the power with which he will endue our souls for his 
service. The writer continues : 

'* After breakfast we had a meeting for prayer for 
dear France, and afterward Mr. and Mrs. Pearsall 
Smith addressed the assembled company in the 
drawing-room on * the rest of faith ' and the life of 
consecration. Mrs. Smith's remarkably lucid, orig- 
inal and striking addresses went home to many 
hearts, and will long be remembered as diffusing a 
sweet savor of Christ." 

They have issued a monthly periodical in London, 
called the " Pathway of Power," which, with the 
meetings to promote holy living and a life of faith, is 
awakening a wide and deep interest among all classes. 
Trace all these facts to their source. Look at what 
has been done and the work now being done by 
thousands of Christian laborers in England, started, 
under God, by their influence, and the most doubt- 
ing ones must confess that the movement is not of 
men nor by men. 

Then the labor of Messrs. Moody and Sankey within 
the last year, whether originating in the camp-meet- 
ing movement or not, makes no difference ; it proves 
that God is choosing his own agents, and is doing 



196 The Abiding Comforter. 

an extraordinary work in his own way, with or with- 
out the consent of Church organizations, as they 
may choose to approve it or not. England and 
Scotland have been stirred within the last twelve 
months as never before since the days of Whitfield 
and the Wesleys, nor even then. That the whole 
work has met with opposition from a few good men 
is only what was expected. It has always been so 
since the time when Christ and his apostles aroused 
the dozing professors in Judea and Jerusalem by 
preaching a holiness to which they had not been 
accustomed. Opposition advertises and always 
serves any good w^ork. Let all who determine to 
live a life of faith in defiance of all difficulties keep 
low at the ]\Iaster's feet in ceaseless prayer to God, 
" in nothing terrified by their adversaries, as it is 
an evident token of salvation, and that of God." 
** For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, 
not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his 
sake, having the same conflict which ye saw in me 
and now hear to be in me." 



TO THE READER. 



A FEW years since I published in the " Home 
•^ -*- Journal" my views on what is termed "the 
unpardonable sin." Having long entertained doubts 
as to the correctness of the commonly held opinion, 
I ventured to suggest a different one. The demand 
soon exhausted the issues containing them, and I 
had thought of requesting their reissue in the same 
form. ' I have inserted them here in a more perma- 
nent form, and together, so they may be read with- 
out interruption. Nor is the theme alien to the 
general character of the book. Of course my views 
will be controverted — old theories are hard to yield 
— but I have long since learned to think for myself 
and allow others the same privilege ; honest, deep 

convictions are always careless of criticism. 

17* • 197 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE SO-CALLED UNPARDONABLE SIN. 

FEW Scriptures have awakened a deeper solici- 
tude than the one in Matt. xii. 2i, 32 : " Where- 
fore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy 
shall be forgiven unto men ; but the blasphemy 
against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto 
men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the 
Son of man, it shall be forgiven him ; but whosoever 
speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be for- 
given him, neither in this world, neither in the world 
to come." 

This saying of our blessed Lord has caused deep 
and painful anxiety to many pious and devout minds. 
All men have sinned, some have blasphemed; and 
the question is, with such : Have I committed this 
deadly, mortal sin for which there is no forgiveness 
here or hereafter? This text has been recalled to 
my memory scores of times during my ministry by 
those who have feared their non-success in penitent 
prayer ; and their unsatisfactory religious state started 
a doubt whether they had not been guilty of the sin 
here alluded to. In my youth there was a volume 
floating about, called " Russel's Seven Sermons," on 
this very text, teaching the irremissibility of certain 

199 



200 The Abiding Comforter. 

sins and the danger of men committing them and 
thus rendering their salvation impossible. Thank 
God that book and most others teaching the same 
theology are out of print and not likely to be re- 
published ! They have done mischief as well as 
good. And for some reason the doctrine is not so 
troublesome now to such as are given to low spirits. 

The common opinion of the text now is that cer- 
tain leading Jews of our Lord's day committed an 
unpardonable sin in saying, as in the twenty-fourth 
verse, " This fellow doth not cast out devils but by 
Beelzebub, the prince of devils," when they knew 
better, but were led to it by malice and hatred of 
Christ, thus sinning against light and knowledge, 
and with malice toward the Saviour. Dr. Adam 
Clarke takes this ground, but confines the possibility 
of such a sin to them alone, and deems it quite 
impossible for any one to commit the crime since, as 
none can be placed in their circumstances. Richard 
Watson, in his Notes on the Gospels, adopts the 
same opinion, but says it is an exception : " and we 
have no right to enlarge on an exception from the 
mercies of the gospel beyond its strict letter. If any 
exception to a general rule demands a severely rigid 
interpretation, it is this, which stands in direct oppo- 
sition to the general character of the covenant of 
grace." 

Some of his words he capitalizes, feeling evidently 
that he was treading on delicate ground, and was 
fearful lest his views might lead some one to despair 



The so-called Unpardonable Sin. 20 1 

of divine mercy. Bengel and Dr. Nast, and Olshausen 
as quoted by Nast, say : " Such are not pardoned — 
not because God is unwilling to pardon and forgive, 
but because the offender has lost the capacity to 
believe God can forgive." Dr. Whedon, who is now 
passing his excellent notes through the press, falls 
into the same common view, and puts the case of 
the unfortunate Pharisees of our Lord's day in the 
same despairing light. In fact, all the writers that I 
have consulted follow the same old long-trodden 
track. 

However hazardous it may be, I take issue with 
them all on the intent and meaning of this solemn 
saying of our blessed Lord. I cannot help attempt- 
ing it. It will be observed, in reading all these 
authors, that they feel what they say may do damage 
to certain minds apt to be gloomy and doubtful, 
and all, or nearly so, confine the possibility of this 
sin to the parties to whom our Lord then spoke. 
Mr. Watson is specially guarded, and says : " It is in 
direct opposition to the general character of the 
covenant of grace." 

This common view so generally held of the inten- 
tion of our Lord in the text to me has not been 
satisfactory for many years past. To differ from 
public sentiment is often dangerous, for in Church 
matters and theological notions perhaps it is well 
that most men follow the lead of certain distinguished 
writers — not for the sake of novelty, or because of 
any willingness to controvert the opinions of the 



202 The Abiding Comforter. 

best writers of our own Church, but because, first, 
the common view referred to before, makes the text 
a sohtary exception to the general character of the 
covenant of grace, as Mr. Watson has well said ; 
and secondly, it has discouraged many humble peni- 
tents and timid minds in their approach to the 
mercy-seat. I will recite a few of my reasons for 
not being satisfied with the common view held by 
the Church. 

I. Why is this sin of the Pharisees so marked 
by divine judgment and followed by such a fearful 
penalty ? It is quite true that law without penalty 
is useless. But denying power in Christ and 
ascribing it to Satan, though a sad crime truly, 
yet stands on the same ground with many scores 
of sins which we know have been forgiven. Malice 
may greatly enhance the guilt of offence; it often 
does. It may have increased its enormity here. It 
may have existed in a special way with these bigoted 
Jews. But it seems to me it is not a whit more 
manifest or strongly marked than in many other 
cases during the ministry of our Lord. Examine 
the offence a little. "And when the Pharisees heard 
it (heard what ?) heard the multitude say, Is not this 
the Son of David." These rulers feared the popu- 
lace were about to leave them and follow the lead 
of Christ. That was their sin from the first and all 
through, and the reason of their crucifying the 
Saviour. I see no malice in their trying to hold on 
to their followers. In retaining in their interests the 



The so-called Unpardo7iable Sin. 203 

populace, it was the custom of the times to ascribe 
to an evil spirit what they failed to account for 
on natural principles. It was an age of Satanic pos- 
sessions. If the people had said nothing, the rulers 
would not have used the phrase thought to con- 
stitute an unpardonable offence. And what they did 
think or say was not said to Christ, but to the com- 
mon people. Their ecclesiastical system was a State 
as well as a Church, and it was an electioneering 
remark. And we all know how much importance 
to attach to such remarks in times of political excite- 
ment. 

Why this sin of the Pharisees was so much more 
heinous than that of scores of others in similar cir- 
cumstances has not been shown, so far as I have 
seen, by any commentator. When Moses wrought 
a succession of miracles in Egypt by the finger of 
God, the leading men were doubtless fully convinced 
that the work was beyond the power of man. Heathens 
are not fools ; but the stable institutions on which 
the monarchy rested wxre at stake. This must not 
be believed to be of God, and therefore the magicians 
are called in to keep the masses quiet and secure their 
continued obedience to authority. The trick suc- 
ceeded for a time, and God was rejected. The same 
thing was tried in Israel during the reign of Ahab, 
on the heights of Carmel, but Elijah convinced the 
staring multitude by calling for fire from heaven, 
and the long-deceived masses arose and slew their 
deceivers. The sons of the prophets ridiculed the 



204 The Abiding Comforter. 

ascension of Elijah on similar ground, and so did 
the false prophets treat the true prophet of God, 
Micah. Christ cast out the evil spirits from the 
man among the tombs, yet the people, mostly 
Jews, rejected him, and deemed him a dangerous 
man. 

Pilate and Herod were equally guilty. The for- 
mer washed his hands of the guilt and declared him 
innocent. Yet he, contrary to his better judgment, 
gave him up to his tormentors, who cried, ** Crucify 
him !" Those who stoned Stephen were worse than 
these Pharisees. Stephen says to them, ** Ye do 
always resist the Holy Ghost : as your fathers did, 
so do ye." Their sin, and that of their fathers, was 
resistance to the Holy Ghost ; and there certainly 
was more malice in it, for they stopped their ears, 
thus refusing to hear more, and ran upon him and 
took his life. This was the madness of malice, and 
contrary to their own convictions at the time. I can- 
not, therefore, see in what respects the sin of the 
Pharisees was greater than that of those who went 
before or followed after them. 

2. This sin was not so much against the Holy 
Ghost as against Christ. Why should this sin be said 
to be against the Holy Ghost any more than their 
other sins ? The miracle was performed by Christ 
himself In the parallel passage (Luke xi. 20) the 
language is, " But if I with the finger of God cast out 
devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon 
you." His miracles were all performed in his own 



The so-called Unpardonable Sin. 205 

name, using the personal pronoun in the first person 
singular. In another case he says, *' Go ye and tell 
that fox. Behold I cast out devils, and do cures to- 
day and to-morrow, and the third day I shall be per- 
fected," assuming that he did the work himself and 
in his own name. In the former it is " with the 
finger of God." In neither case is the Holy Ghost 
referred to. He is the actor in both, so that the sin 
in each case was against himself But allow me to 
add a few more to the same effect. " What will ye 
that I shall do unto you?" Matt, xx. 32. ** Neither 
tell I you by what authority I do these things." 
Matt. xxi. 27. '' My meat is to do the will of him 
that sent me." John iv. 34. *' The works I do bear 
witness of me." John v. 36. In the name of Jesus, 
Peter healed the lame man. This is the form of 
speech used in all cases. The blasphemy therefore 
was against Christ, and not the Holy Ghost. Of the 
Holy Ghost they had then but little knowledge. 
Years afterward the new converts at Ephesus had 
not so much as heard that there was any Holy 
Ghost. 

3. The gospel was afterward preached to these 
same Pharisees. The apostles were commanded to 
begin their ministry at Jerusalem. There is where 
these same leading officers of the Jewish Church 
lived ; and the^ gospel was to be preached to every 
creature, there as everywhere else. These were the 
persons, then, as well as others, to whom pardon 
was first offered. There can be no rational doubt of 

18 



2o6 The Abiding Comforter. 

this. Indeed, the presumption is that some of these 
same men were converted and saved during the won- 
derful revival which occurred on and after the day of 
Pentecost. But few of the names of the converts are 
recorded during the whole transaction, and therefore 
there is no positive proof that can be adduced. 
" But many of the priests were obedient to the 
faith." 

4. This common view, that these men committed 
an irremissible sin, I oppose again, because it wars 
with other Scriptures. The rule of interpretation 
has always been that an obscure passage is to be 
explained by other Scriptures more clear. If the 
usual interpretation be the true one, that these men 
were ever after excluded from mercy, the apostles 
would have been compelled to except them in their 
offers of mercy and grace to the multitude. Thus : 
If any are here who ascribed the miracles of Christ 
to Satanic power, you are excepted in our offer. 
Our gospel is not for you. And they could have 
retorted, But you are to "preach the gospel to 
every creature." And, what is more, your general 
commission was subsequent to our grievous offence. 
The sin because of which you exclude us from the 
mercy of God and the merits of Christ was prior to 
your commission, and well known to the Master 
when he commanded you to go and preach a full 
salvation to all men. Therefore you dare not ex- 
clude us from its benefits. Who could object to 
their logic ? How could they have answered them ? 



The so-called Unpardonable Sin. 207 

No ; the apostles excluded none : they had no right 
to do it. Our Lord did not mean what the com- 
mentators say he meant. His words of warning 
were based upon their thoughts, not their words. 
"And Jesus knew their thoughts." It may be 
doubted if they uttered in words what is ascribed 
to them ; at least loud enough for him to hear. 
Else why is it said, *^ He knew their thoughts " ? 

The apostle says in Hebrews, " But we see Jesus, 
who was made a little lower than the angels, for the 
suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, 
that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for 
every man." This grand passage was written, most 
likely, whMe some of these same men were living. 
At least its doctrine was preached in their hearing. 
There can be no doubt Christ suffered death and was 
crowned subsequent to their crime said to be so un- 
pardonable. " He tasted death for every man." 
The wicked Pharisees cannot be excluded from 
mercy and the clear gospel sense of this passage be 
retained. So, at least, it seems to me. " But now 
he commandeth all men everywhere to repent." 
Of course repentance must be possible to all, else it 
would not be commanded. 

The common interpretation of this passage ex- 
cluding these offending Jews from divine mercy and 
all the benefits of the sacrificial systems of grace, it 
is admitted, stands alone in the New Testament. 
Mr. Watson admits this, and seems to feel the force 
of the fact, and urges that we have no right to extend 



2o8 The Abiding Comfoi'ter, 

it farther than this sohtary case. A single passage 
in the whole Bible, and that not clear on the point in 
controversy, as has been already shown, is made to 
contradict the clear sense and plain teaching of all 
others. This one fact should at least create a doubt 
of the correctness of such interpretation, however 
common, and however high the authority that sus- 
tains it. It certainly should lead us to look for a 
sense more in accord with the general tenor of the 
word of God and the gracious system of mercy we 
are called on to preach to all men. 

If such a sin could be committed at any time — 
one that could never be forgiven— is it not reasonable 
to suppose that the author of Revelation would have 
marked it, and cautioned men against its commission 
more than he has ? A rock or shoal in the broad 
ocean is not left without a light, boat, buoy or bell 
to warn the mariner to keep at a safe distance. 
Nations deem such guards a necessity to save from 
wreck and loss of property and life. The author of 
Revelation has given repeated warnings against every 
vice in the whole catalogue of vices, and this, too, even 
when such sins are declared remissible. How much 
more necessary to warn men against a sin that never 
can be forgiven ! The caution certainly is more needed. 
It should have been iterated and reiterated in the 
most urgent and solemn form known to human lan- 
guage. Yet such a mortal sin is not named anywhere 
else in the teachings of our Lord, nor indeed in the 
New Testament, unless the language of St. Paul in 



The so-called Unpardonable Sin. 209 

the tenth of Hebrews be so interpreted; but that text 
can have no such construction ; and until it be at- 
tempted, there is no use of further reference to it 
here. Not a warning is given in relation to any un- 
pardonable sin. On the contrary, we are told that 
"though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white 
as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall 
be as wool." " Let the wicked forsake his ways and 
the unrighteous man his thoughts ; and let him re- 
turn unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon 
him, and to our God, and he will abundantly pardon." 
For the reasons above stated I cannot receive the 
common interpretation given of the text in question. 
I believe that our Lord never intended to teach that 
the salvation of these Pharisees was impossible. 
The text admits of a very different interpretation. 

What, then, was the intention of our Lord? This 
the reader has a right to ask, and I shall try to reply 
as best I can. When the views of others are chal- 
lenged by any one, he is bound to at least suggest 
others. Every mystery has a key to unlock it, if we 
are able to find it ; and it does seem to me that this 
text admits of a different and more merciful interpre- 
tation. 

The whole Trinity is engaged in the work of 
human redemption. The prior dispensation, with its 
types, figures, promises and bleeding sacrifices, pre- 
figured what was to follow after. The gospel in 
Leviticus was a system of education preparatory to 
the gospel of Christ. The one could not do without 

13* 



2IO TJic Abiding Comforter. 

the other. The first was imconditiojial — that is, the 
wisdom or folly of men could not check or materially 
change it. Divine wisdom planned it, and almighty 
power carried it forward till it had accomplished its 
purpose in its mighty sweep through the ages. 

The Son of God, the Man Christ Jesus, came at 
the time appointed. Ke assumed his work, and fin- 
ished it in the redemption of a fallen race. This, 
too, was unconditiojial. Man had no part in it. 
" He came to his own, and his own received him 
not." But this in nowise retarded him in fulfilling 
his mission. *' God so loved the Avorld that he gave 
his only begotten Son." " It became Him for whom 
are all things, and by whom are all things, in bring- 
ing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of 
their salvation perfect through suffering," 

The Holy Ghost, the third person in the adorable 
Trinity, also had his work. This is a personally 
saving work. He was to reprove the world of sin, 
work upon all hearts, and draw men to Christ and 
salvation ; and as men are moral agents, capable of 
receiving or rejecting the divine offers of grace and 
salvation, the work of the Holy Spirit is of necessity 
conditional. Men can resist, grieve, quench and ef- 
fectually neutralize all his work wrought within 
them, and be finally lost. This resistance and man's 
utter ruin are in his own power. 

Resistance and impenitence being possible to the 
end of life, forgiveness and salvation may be rendered 
impossible ; for when once the Master of the house 



The so-called Unpardonable Sin. 21 1 

hath risen up and shut the door, that is the end of 
mercy and hope. To blaspheme is to resist, to 
oppose, to defame and to hold in contempt either 
the Father, Son or Holy Ghost, The work of the 
Father and the Son they had resisted in all the forms 
within their power. But neither of these was con- 
ditional, and therefore opposition and human crime 
could not hinder them. 

" Now," says Jesus, " you oppose and vilify me 
and my work to the last ; but all such blasphemy 
may and shall be forgiven unto men. But the Holy 
Ghost is soon to take my place. I am soon to finish 
my work and go to the Father ; but when the Holy 
Ghost comes, if you persist in resistance to him as 
you have to me, there is no forgiveness for you 
* either in this world, or that which is to come.' 
That will be your last offer of mercy. His kind 
offers and offices rejected, and there is no hope left. 
Mind, it is blasphemeth ! Not you did or do now, 
but continued to the end as you have treated me 
and my labors for your good. It is not one act, but 
a continued course of action." 

This, it seems to me, was the intention of our 
Lord. He uttered it as a prolepsis or warning as to 
their future course, as if he had said : " You resist 
me in my work ; but the dispensation of the Holy 
Ghost will open in a few months : I warn you not to 
so treat him. His work you can resist successfully, 
as it will be conditional ; but such resistance will be 
your final ruin." In this light Christ did not pro- 



212 The Abiding Comforter. 

nounce sentence of pretention, but uttered a solemn 
warning to those whom he knew would see and feel 
the power and Godhead of this same Holy Ghost on 
and after the day of Pentecost. 

1. It seems to me that this view of the passage 
clears it of all difficulty. It harmonizes with all the 
circumstances and all other Scriptures. Christ had 
come and fulfilled all the promises and tj^pes. They 
were convinced that his claims were sustained by 
his works. " If I had not done the work that no 
other man did, they had not had sin ; but now they 
had no cloak for their sin." Still, he would pay the 
price of their redemption. The Holy Ghost would 
soon come and '* reprove the v»-orld of sin because 
they believed not on him."' 

2. This view accords with all the facts, with ob- 
servation and experience. Large promises of pardon 
and acceptances are made to the most criminal. The 
most vile have found merc\'. In modern revivals, 
some are found cursing the work, and blaspheming 
God and relicrion bv attributing' the work to the 
devil ; yet these are afterward in many cases saved 
and found " sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and 
in their right mind." 

3. But it is objected that this sin hath never for- 
giveness. The expression is strong, I know, and 
must be interpreted in the light of other Scriptures. 
" No drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God," 
yet such are often converted. " Xow the works of 
the flesh are manifest, which are these : adultery, 



The so-called Unpardonable Sin. 213 

fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, 
witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, 
sedition, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, 
revilings ; and such like, of the which I tell you 
before, as I have told you in time past, that they 
that do such things, shall not enter the kingdom of 
God." Gal. V. 19-24. 

Here is also a strong passage. All are shut out 
of the kingdom without an if or qualifying phrase, 
yet all know how it is to be understood. '' The 
wicked shall be turned into hell, with all the nations 
that forget God," yet *' let the wicked forsake his 
way," etc. So he who now blasphemeth may re- 
pent, believe and be saved ; so runs the tenor of our 
glorious gospel. A wonderful system, it is true, 
but worthy of acceptance by all. 

4. It may be asked, Is it possible, then, for the day 
of grace, with any one, to terminate before death ? 
No proof, as far as I can see, exists that this can 
occur. Life is a probation. All this life is our day 
of trial. I know of no passage where it is even in- 
timated that man's day of probation has ended or 
can end before death. What purpose could He in 
whose hand our breath is have in extending our 
life beyond our day of probation where there is no 
possibility of change for the better? I can see none. 
He would be in the way of others, with no possible 
benefit to himself The whole gospel system rec- 
ognizes all the living as capable of repentance and 
reformation. The offer of salvation is and must be 



214 ^^^^ Abiding Comforter. 

to all men. Woe to the Church and all of us if we 
do not so offer it. Were the opposite true, how 
could we preach to the masses and be sure we are 
speaking the truth ? and there can be no strength 
without assurance. It is more or less painful to see 
how the pious and able commentators on this passage 
labor to avoid doing injury to the timid and doubting 
believer, italicizing and capitalizing certain words 
lest they be misunderstood. It indicates a weak 
confidence in their own utterances as to the mean- 
ing of the text under consideration. In the offer of 
grace to all men Christ intended his messengers 
should be free of all doubt, and therefore strong. 
A minister's strength is in his confidence, his assur- 
ance that he is right. A doubt of his own posi- 
tion enfeebles all he says. Every man of God who 
labors for the salvation of others feels the force of 
this truth. 

Let us look at those Scriptures seeming to favor 
the old opinion that men live on after repentance 
and salvation is impossible. " My spirit shall not 
always strive with man, seeing he is but dust." 
This is spoken of the old world, soon to be swept off 
by the flood. God intended their destruction, but 
gave one hundred and twenty years' respite. Noah 
preached, and every stroke of the hammer in build- 
ing the ark was a telling sermon. The flood took 
them all away. Probation and life ended at the 
same time. 

But may not a man's iniquities be full ? There 



The so-called Unpardo7table Sin. 215 

can be no doubt of this ; and until they were full 
among the Amorites, Abraham or his seed were not 
allowed to destroy them. Probation and life ended 
together in their case also. All were cut off, both 
small and great. Death follows quickly when hope of 
moral change ceases. This may or may not account 
for much that transpires about us constantly. Here I 
will cease to follow out this painful thought. " Secret 
things belong to the Lord our God, and revealed 
things to us and our children for ever." 

5. But is there not a sin unto death ? Undoubtedly 
there is a sin involving natural death. " There is a 
sin unto death : I do not say you shall pray for it." 
I John V. 16. There can be no doubt that many are 
cut off in early and later life by reason of their vices 
in the present as well as in former ages. The people 
of the old world fell victims to sudden destruction 
because of their wickedness. Sodom and other cities 
of the plain were suddenly consumed, the apostle 
says, ** suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Korah 
and his followers, the rebels in Israel, were engulfed 
in a moment with all their families and treasures. 
The sin of Achan involved natural death. The 
house of Eli was blotted out, and Ananias and his 
wife paid the penalty of their offence suddenly, by 
the direct agency of almighty God himself It is a 
fearful thing to fall under the divine wrath. 

But, thanks be to God ! the way of hope and mercy 
is open to all men as it was to the wicked Pharisees. 
There is no outcast race, family or person. All hold 



2i6 TJie Abiding Comforter. 

a like relation to God, and the gospel opens the way 
of salvation, so that none need despair or even doubt 
of divine mercy. We may happily sing with Dr. 
Watts, with full faith in its truthfulness : 

"And while the lamp holds out to burn 
The vilest sinner may return." 



THE END. 



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